Jack Dee: 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

When I was a kid I had a Saturday job in the stockroom of a supermarket. I remember everything in there being a little bit grubby and slightly sticky. We’d do things like play rugby with a swiss roll. I think of it every time I go shopping.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 November 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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Rebecca Lucy Taylor

At a pub in Rotherham. I was a really bad waitress and I ended up being demoted to chopping the potatoes and I even got fired from that.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 November 2025 source ↗

Lupita Nyong'o Actress

I waited tables for one night at the turn of the century. They were being fussy about how I put the food on the plates, and I couldn’t have cared less.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 October 2019 source ↗

Simone Biles United States artistic gymnast

Picking up dog poop at home: my sister and I used to take turns.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 February 2017 source ↗

Adam Kay British comedy writer, author, youtuber, comedian and former physician

A comedy gig at an army barracks for thousands of angry, horny squaddies just back from six months in the desert. I was on straight after the stripper.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 June 2023 source ↗