MS
Having to clean out my daughter’s digs at university. The memory of the state of that toilet still lives with me.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 April 2018 source ↗
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 →
Elaine Paige
English singer and actress
Maybe That’s Your Problem, a musical about premature ejaculation. It closed after only 18 performances.
I’ve enjoyed every single job, including working at my dad’s chicken shop selling potato gems (fried potato circles) to the surfer dudes.
Michael Ball
English singer, presenter and actor
Handing out leaflets for a European coach trip wearing just lederhosen, in February and March in Surrey. It was freezing, and I got fired.
I lived in Cape Town, and I was spotted on the street and signed up by a modelling agency. I did about three shoots before I realised I hate having my photograph taken and I like food.
More from Meera Syal
View profile →Often, with laughter.
Not being able to keep up piano lessons. I did a year and I was really good and loved it and then my parents couldn’t afford for me to continue.
Holidays. For years, I would book a big house in Britain for a week for the entire family. There would be 14 of us. I don’t regret a penny.
On a school trip to Wales when I was 12. My canoe capsized and got stuck upside down next to a rock. I was underwater for about 30 seconds but it felt a lot longer.
My parents. They have been the best example of a loving and respectful marriage over 60 years.
More on craft & work
- What accomplishment matters most to you? 192 answers
- How do you tell when a piece of work is done? 67 answers
- What do you do when you feel creatively stuck? 63 answers
- How does a new piece of work usually begin for you? 60 answers
- How much rewriting or revision do you typically do? 46 answers
- What part of your job would surprise outsiders because it takes up so much of your time? 41 answers
Also answered this
Andy Serkis, Archie Panjabi, James Norton, Omid Djalili, Karamo Brown, Craig Charles
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All craft & work questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject