Stephanie Beacham: 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 Stephanie Beacham 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

View all 229 →

Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008

Scooping ice cream is tougher than it looks. … Rows and rows of rock-hard ice cream can be brutal on the wrists. … I was less interested in what the job meant for my future and more concerned about what it meant for my jump shot.

Recorded LinkedIn, 'Here's the Scoop: Why My First Job Mattered', The Associated Press, 25 February 2016 source ↗

Charles Collingwood

Standing outside a pub in Acton on a freezing February day in a threadbare overcoat doing market research.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 March 2025 source ↗

Aidan Gillen Irish actor

Cleaning around the feet of John Malkovich with industrial carpet cleaner while he was trying to learn lines in the foyer of a theatre.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 May 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 ↗