Russell Howard: What is the worst job you have ever had?

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.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Russell Howard

British comedian and presenter

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Once, I was MC at a Christmas gig in Romford and a woman threw a dildo at my face.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 February 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

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Rebecca Ferguson

I didn’t enjoy a bar job and glass collecting – people could be really rude.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 December 2023 source ↗

Tess Daly English television presenter

Serving bar snacks in a pub in my teens. Once I spilled an entire family’s Sunday lunch into the dad’s lap.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 December 2016 source ↗

Gemma Chan British Chinese actress

When I was a teenager I worked as a lifeguard, and one of our duties was to clean the showers. It essentially involved cleaning people’s pubes from the drain.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 August 2018 source ↗

Shobna Gulati

When I was younger, I signed up to a job agency and thought I would be doing secretarial work, but they assigned me to clean toilets in a factory in Oldham.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 October 2025 source ↗