Julien Macdonald: What is the worst job you have done?

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.

Recorded Julien Macdonald said elsewhere, not written here

Working in a betting office on Grand National day. I was 17 and my hair was scrunched like Mick Hucknall’s.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 October 2016 source ↗

Others on this question

I’ve enjoyed every single job, including working at my dad’s chicken shop selling potato gems (fried potato circles) to the surfer dudes.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 July 2026 source ↗

Malcolm Gladwell Staff writer at The New Yorker; author of The Tipping Point and Outliers

I was a reporter for many years at the Washington Post. Although I loved every minute, I don’t think I was a very good reporter.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 April 2021 source ↗

Marc Almond English singer

In the school holidays, I worked at a soft drinks factory in Southport.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗

Bar and buffet at Top Ten Bingo in Greenford. A lot of the old people were quite bigoted.

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