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 Ann Patchett said elsewhere, not written here
I’ve never had a terrible job. I’ve been a cook, waitress, bookseller, teacher, freelance writer. I know what the bad jobs are and I haven’t done them.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 April 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

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Ralf Little English actor, writer, former semi-professional footballer
For two weeks I worked behind the players’ bar at Bolton Wanderers football club – footballers don’t tip.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 February 2020 source ↗
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 ↗
Big Narstie British entertainer
When I first got excluded from school at 15, my dad gave me experience as a roofer. That’s when I came to realise I’m scared of heights.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 January 2022 source ↗

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