The Fed is busy dealing with inflation while Beyoncé is telling people to quit their jobs in her latest single.
The lyrics in the Grammy-winning singer’s song “Break My Soul,” which was released Monday, point to leaving your job and seem to be related to the “Great Resignation,” per CNN.
The words in the ’90s house-inspired single go as follows: “And I just quit my job / I’m gonna find new drive.”
Employees started quitting their jobs en masse in the beginning of 2021. During the month of April alone, a record 4 million people had quit their jobs, whether it was due to COVID-19, dissatisfying jobs, low wages or better work conditions, as Art Raymond reported for the Deseret News.
This trend continues as large organizations double their job openings for positions in manufacturing, retail, education and professional services, putting pressure on wages to rise.
“It’s been interesting the extent to which the phenomenon has seeped into the zeitgeist,” Nick Bunker, an economist at job site Indeed, told CNBC, in reference to the “Great Resignation.”
Beyoncé’s new song “is one instance of a broader public awareness or discussion about people quitting their jobs, which is reflective of what’s happening in the labor market and society,” Bunker added.
The song includes other lines like, “Work by nine / Then off past five / And they work my nerves / That’s why I cannot sleep at night.”
Meanwhile, it also uses a vocal sample from New Orleans legend Big Freedia’s song “Explode” that reinforces her message to “release”:
“Release ya anger, release ya mind / Release ya job, release the time / Release ya trade, release the stress / Release the love, forget the rest.”
Produced by Beyoncé, The-Dream, Tricky Stewart and BlaqNmilD, the song also features a Robin S. ’90s hit, “Show Me Love”
Twitter is already taking cues from the upbeat hit and piling on to the job-quitting. Here’s what some users said:
BREAKING: Beyoncé's "Break My Soul" identified as source of The Great Resignation
— Liam Redmond (@theliamcredmond) June 21, 2022
when Beyoncé had Big Freedia say “release your job, release the time, release your trade” in break my soul she was urging the masses to organize a general strike this summer. In this essay I will…
— lijuhbiguhtiguh (@vctrahll) June 21, 2022
you want me to “get a job”? the thing that Beyoncé hates?
— Paul McCallion (@OrangePaulp) June 21, 2022
Is she telling us to quit our jobs?? Because I will, Beyoncé, I will! pic.twitter.com/K6lbMWCBoJ
— Bran. (@HeyyBran) June 21, 2022
The singer’s seventh studio album, “Renaissance,” is officially scheduled to drop on July 29.