Skip to content

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.

Others on this question

View all 230 →
Gloria Steinem Writer and feminist organiser
Being a salesgirl in a baby shop where the others said things like, “He’s Jewish, but she’s American.” Also, after college, being a waitress in London, and trying to make change in the old money of shillings and pence.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2017 source ↗
Victoria Derbyshire British broadcaster
Working in a furniture factory in Warrington when I was 17. It was a summer job, and I had to cover the studs in the back of Chesterfield sofas with leather.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 September 2021 source ↗
Hayley Squires English actress and playwright
I worked in a call centre. I would go clubbing on a Saturday with my brother and my mates, get home for five or six in the morning, and then have to be at work at 8am.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2020 source ↗
Martin Compston Scottish actor
There was a period when I did four or five terrible films. My agent said: “Don’t do them.” But it was my month’s rent for a day’s work. One time, my green room was a lorry. It started snowing and it was just me and a plastic chair in the back of an open lorry. It was pretty grim.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 March 2022 source ↗

More from Jack Whitehall

View profile →

More on craft & work

Also answered this

Adrian Dunbar, David Arquette, Jodie Whittaker, Meera Syal, Stephen Graham, Julian Sands

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer