Pauline Black: 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 Pauline Black said elsewhere, not written here

Giving barium enemas. I used to be a radiographer in Coventry.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 April 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

Irvine Welsh Scottish novelist

Laying down slabs for the council.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Siri Hustvedt American novelist, essayist, poet

I was a floor model briefly at Bloomingdale’s in New York in 1979. I hated it. When no one was watching, I would lock myself in the toilet and read.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2017 source ↗

Kathy Lette Australian-British author

Bedpan emptier in a hospital.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 June 2024 source ↗

Robbie Williams English singer

I sold double glazing in Stoke when I was 16. That was for two weeks. Other than that, I’ve never really had a “job”.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 May 2017 source ↗