Stephanie Beacham: 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.

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I was 15 working in Boots on Barnet High Street and it was terrifying. At coffee break you had to know whose cup was whose, and taking the wrong cup was a crime. I’ve met bitches, but I tell you they started out in Boots in Barnet.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 May 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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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 ↗

Peter Capaldi Actor and director

I have been pretty terrible in quite a lot of terrible things.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 June 2021 source ↗

Louis Theroux British and American journalist and author

There was a period in the early 2000s when I had been doing celebrity profiles and thought I’d lost my way creatively.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 November 2018 source ↗

Carol Vorderman

Living in a campervan for a week with Timmy Mallett for a children’s TV show about 40 years ago.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 March 2026 source ↗