Arlene Phillips: 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

In a Dagenham factory at 6am, picking soldiers’ greatcoats from wars around the world to sell at the market in Chelsea. I smelled like mothballs, and no one would come near me.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 June 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Lucy Beaumont

I worked in a paper factory at five o’clock on a Saturday morning when I was in my early 20s. I’d go out raving the night before, get an hour’s sleep and then go to the factory. I was covered in paper cuts and used to think I heard people talking to me; they gave me a lot of breaks because they thought I was going mad.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 October 2024 source ↗

Monty Don English horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer

I once had to dig a fire escape from a basement in a health club. It took two weeks.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 May 2018 source ↗

Dominic Cooper English actor

I used to clean the ovens in a bakery. Brillo pad and poison.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 August 2017 source ↗

Sofia Helin Swedish actress

Acting, when you don’t want to do it or you disagree with everything, is almost like having sex with someone you don’t like. I had one experience like that on stage, in a terrible version of The Cherry Orchard. I put on a wig, dark-coloured contacts and just hoped no one would recognise me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 September 2020 source ↗