Goodbye Working Life

cover art for Bransby - Goodbye Working Life - image shows a laptop with a discarded headest and tie draped over it

A break up song for your boss, a lullaby for your career - this is about leaving your desk and not looking back. Many of us have had jobs that we just tolerated, offices we attended in body but not in spirit, this is for those people, it's about those jobs. This was never going to be triumphalist, it's melancholy, it's not a celebration of quitting, it's coming to terms with it.

This was written many years ago about a long-forgotten office, I've had lots of other jobs since. This turned out to be surprisingly tricky to get right in the recording, my first attempt had a lot more instrumentation, was lots quicker but never felt right. It was when my partner, Dawn, mentioned that she'd always thought of it as a lullaby that I finally got my head round it again and found the original intent, paring back the arrangement and going back to its roots as a simple acoustic song, it's about as close as I'll ever come to folk.

You can listen to Goodbye Working Life and read the lyrics below.

  1. Goodbye Working Life Bransby 4:14

I’m putting all the hours in but I want to tell you this

That I don’t exactly work here no I just attend the office

And I won’t let the work delay the messages I send

And the weekday 9-5 is just a countdown to the weekend

So goodbye working life

Goodbye 9-5

Sleeping on my desk

Wake me gently when it’s 5’o’clock

I know I’m not the only one who wakes up to that beep

And makes it through to Friday with a brain that’s still asleep

My hair is short my shirt is straight I see and smile and speak

And I don’t put off til tomorrow what I can put of til next week

So goodbye working life

Goodbye 9-5

Sleeping on my desk

Wake me when it’s 5’o’clock

I really need the rest

I just don’t feel the best

And I might not be in tomorrow

So you’re gonna have to let go

I know that it won’t happen but it’s not much to ask I’m sure

So I’m waiting for the day when they just push cheques through my door

I’m going out tonight and I’ll be out until the morning

So if I nod off in this meeting it’s not my fault it’s just you’re boring

Come 5’o’ clock I spring to life I’m like a different person

But there’s no point quitting this job just to go and get a worse one

So goodbye working life

Goodbye 9-5

Sleeping on my desk

Wake me when it’s 5’o’clock

I really need the rest

I just don’t feel the best

And I might not be in tomorrow

So you’re gonna have to let go

I’ve been staring at this screen all day

Working out the hours til payday

Nothing’s getting done I know

Avoiding work since 9 and so

Can you wake me gently

When it’s 5 ‘o’clock