Charles Collingwood: 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.

Charles Collingwood

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Standing outside a pub in Acton on a freezing February day in a threadbare overcoat doing market research.

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

Others on this question

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Stephen K Amos

I was a guard on the Orient Express – however, only when it was stationed at a railway siding in Vauxhall.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 September 2025 source ↗

David Jason English actor

Scrabbling about under dusty floorboards as an electrician in my early 20s.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 May 2021 source ↗

Shane MacGowan Irish singer-songwriter

Helping to slaughter farmyard animals as a kid; watching while my aunties cut them up to get their guts out and seeing eggs floating around in the hens. That made me become a vegetarian.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 December 2021 source ↗

Bryn Terfel Welsh bass-baritone singer

I cleaned the toilets at the local pub every Saturday morning.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 November 2024 source ↗

More from Charles Collingwood

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Question Which trait in yourself do you like least? Identity & self

I talk too much.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 March 2025 source ↗

Question How would you want people to remember you? Death & what remains

As a man who tried his best to entertain.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 March 2025 source ↗

Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

Freddie Flintoff. He played cricket in the best spirit and in his series Field of Dreams, you could see the boys hanging on his every word. He’s a special guy.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 March 2025 source ↗