Jared Harris: 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 worked on a kibbutz in Israel and had to clean out the chicken run. It was like an oven. Inside were rows and rows of chickens that had been shitting for months – the whole floor was six inches deep in chicken shit.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 February 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Mark Radcliffe

Working in a bottle factory, which lasted one day, and the Radio 1 breakfast show.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 August 2025 source ↗

Robert Glenister English actor

The back end of a horse in panto in Newcastle in 1979.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 July 2022 source ↗

Caroline Lucas

A holiday job as a chambermaid at the Scratchwood Travelodge on the M1. The state some people leave their rooms in was a revelation.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 April 2024 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 ↗