Certainly you’ve familiarized yourself with the epic musical production “Friday” by Rebecca Black which, by the grace of God, has, with its 46 million viewings, momentarily eclipsed our pop culture obsession with Charlie Sheen. Nevertheless, few have realized the full wisdom that her art offers to staffing companies.
As unapparent as it may be to those still stuck in the anachronistic writings of Seth Godin, Jack Welch and Gary Vaynerchuk, Rebecca has distilled the essence of successful staffing in her excellent lyrics.
#1 Early Bird Gets the Worm
Rebecca wastes no time getting to what creates winning staffing companies: rising early. She sings “Seven a.m. waking up the morning / Gotta be fresh / Gotta go downstairs / Gotta have my bowl / Gotta have cereal / Seein’ everything the time is goin’ / Tickin’ on and on.”
Note her use of the number seven, a clear reference to the 1954 Academy Award winning recruitment film, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Note also Rebecca’s repetition of the word “gotta”. There are simply habits that you must follow to succeed in business. The declining cultural standards would find it ok to play Angry Birds all day, but Rebecca sets us straight in saying there is stuff you gotta do.
#2 Not All Business Is Good Business
In singing “Kickin’ in the front seat / Sittin’ in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up / which seat can I take?” Rebecca gets right to the heart of what separates a great recruiter from a good one. Not all business is good business. Not all job orders are real job orders. You choose which seat you take, and you choose which job orders you take.
You can “Kick” ass in the front seat or you can piss away your time Sittin in the back seat. Your choice.
#3 The Secret of Staffing Sales: Friday Checks
Every great staffing sales person knows there’s gold in those Friday checks. For those of you so unfortunate as to not be in the industry, a “Friday Check” in staffing is when you call up your customer and ask how your temps are doing. Or better yet you hightail it out to the customer site to see things for yourself (paychecks in hand if you’ve got a great staffing software system).
So when Rebecca sings her refrain “It’s Friday, Friday / Gotta get down on Friday…Partyin’ Partyin’ Yeah! Partyin’ Partyin’ Yeah! / Fun Fun Fun Fun”, she’s deconstructing the mistaken societal notion that sales activity is a form of drudgery.
So far from being an artless pop culture icon with a bad voice, Rebecca radiates with business wisdom and shreds the constraints which have kept us back for so long.
Myself I can’t wait for her next song.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I am impressed. That’s an amazing feat to find some nuggets of business wisdom in this vapid, inane ode to the spoiled empty life of a teen whose biggest problem is whether to sit in the front seat or the back seat of a convertible that takes her and her spoiled friends to school. Snide remarks aside, your points are well taken. And so is the title of her next song, “Saturday.”
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Wow! Didn’t think it was possible but you gave reason to the insanity that is Rebecca Black in my life. I just wasn’t quite getting the subliminal messages. haha Thank you for the hilarious pearls of wisom specific to staffing. Now off to my Friday, Friday customer calls!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I didnt think there was any wisdom to that song, in fact I couldnt even make it through the whole music video without contemplating jumping out my window….luckily I turned it off! Nice work for finding something of value in such a horrendous song!
Like or Dislike:
1 
0