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.
Christmas elf at the Rainforest Cafe.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 May 2026 source ↗
Secretary to a lawyer. I was sacked after a week.
The Wimpy in Kingston when I was 16. I’d recently become vegetarian, and there weren’t many veggie burgers in 1988.
Pressing uniforms in a laundry. I was 14. I lied about my age and said I was 16, even though I probably looked about 12.
Cleaning men’s toilets in the Swan hotel in the Cotswolds.
Getting to 39 without having a filling in my teeth.
Try not to take yourself too seriously.
Congratulating Dua Lipa on managing to release a single in such a tough industry, because I thought she was a struggling indie artist. I Googled her the next day and realised that she has 88 million followers.
Endless vomiting. That comes from my emetophobia, which is a huge part of my OCD.
I bought a house with someone and realised at the housewarming party that it was a mistake.
A perfect cup of coffee – warm, bittersweet, anxiety-inducing and delicious.
Martin Clunes, Charles Dance, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Craig Revel Horwood, Emeli Sandé, Rose Tremain
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