Dervla Kirwan: What is the worst job you have ever had?

The question

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 said elsewhere, not written here

About five years ago, I was in a play that was an unmitigated disaster. I had to rally the troops and go out every night.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 October 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

Kim Wilde English pop singer

I’ve always enjoyed all my jobs, whether it was cleaning the stairs for my piano teacher or working at Lister hospital one summer.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 August 2019 source ↗

Nick Grimshaw English television and radio presenter

When I was doing A-levels, I worked in a factory that made homework diaries, which was fine until they banned talking and the radio.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 June 2017 source ↗

Martin Freeman English actor

The Wimpy in Kingston when I was 16. I’d recently become vegetarian, and there weren’t many veggie burgers in 1988.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 January 2019 source ↗

Siri Hustvedt American novelist, essayist, poet

I was a floor model briefly at Bloomingdale’s in New York in 1979. I hated it. When no one was watching, I would lock myself in the toilet and read.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2017 source ↗