[Verse 1]
Picture smokestacks belching, workers streaming through the gates
Foremen scanning faces, picking fortunes, sealing fates
Point a finger, you're selected, point away and you're dismissed
No applications, no interviews, just names that don't exist
[Chorus]
Before HR walked the hallways, before the handbooks hit the shelf
Employment at will was gospel, you were on your own yourself
No safety nets or benefits, no records kept at all
Just work until you couldn't, then watch somebody else stand tall
[Verse 2]
Payroll clerks with ledger books, counting coins behind their desk
Company owners set the rules, put workers to the test
Machinery humming, danger lurking, accidents were just the cost
When you're injured past repair, consider your position lost
[Chorus]
Before HR walked the hallways, before the handbooks hit the shelf
Employment at will was gospel, you were on your own yourself
No safety nets or benefits, no records kept at all
Just work until you couldn't, then watch somebody else stand tall
[Bridge]
No compensation for the wounded
No insurance when times got rough
No minimum wage protection
When the going got too tough
Factory gates were judge and jury
Survival was the only law
This was business before boundaries
This was work without a floor
[Verse 3]
No mediation for disputes, no advocates to hear your case
If trouble brewed between the workers, you'd better know your place
Functions scattered, duties random, nobody to intervene
The coldest era of employment that industry had seen
[Chorus]
Before HR walked the hallways, before the handbooks hit the shelf
Employment at will was gospel, you were on your own yourself
No safety nets or benefits, no records kept at all
Just work until you couldn't, then watch somebody else stand tall
[Outro]
From this chaos came the calling
For a different way to lead
Human Resources found its purpose
In workers' desperate need