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The question

What is the worst job you have ever had?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.

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Others on this question

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Omid Djalili British stand-up comedian and actor
Selling low-grade cookery books in west London office buildings.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2010 source ↗
Rachel Whiteread English artist
Serving tea in an insurance office to people who seemed to despise me at the age of 16 was pretty unpleasant.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 December 2017 source ↗
In South Africa I washed cars, I danced in parking lots and shopping malls, and was a children’s entertainer.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 March 2026 source ↗
Harlan Coben American author
I worked a janitorial job, cleaning university dormitories after students had gone home for the summer. You can’t imagine the condition some of those rooms were in. They could have doubled as sets for a slasher film.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 August 2024 source ↗

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