Michelle Collins: What is the worst job you have ever had? — FLAPSS

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.

MC

Michelle Collins

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Working in McDonald’s when I was 16. It was about 90p an hour. Because I was always late, they made me “trash walk” the length of Kentish Town high street and pick up the McDonald’s rubbish.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 230 →

Melanie Blatt English singer

Horrible gigs at the beginning, when no one’s interested.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 July 2023 source ↗

Kiefer Sutherland British and Canadian actor

I’ve been lucky enough to act for 35 years. The only other job I had was as a cook at a drive-in restaurant, and I enjoyed that as well.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2017 source ↗

Sandi Toksvig Danish and British broadcaster, comedian and writer

Working on an assembly line in a plastics factory.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 March 2018 source ↗

Adjoa Andoh English actress

Cleaning men’s toilets in the Swan hotel in the Cotswolds.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 September 2021 source ↗

More from Michelle Collins

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Question How would you sum yourself up in three words? Identity & self

Can I have more than three? Creative, kind, a grafter, engaging, loyal, fun and generous.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

Being murdered – I listen to too many true-crime podcasts.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

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

As somebody who loved people, was always curious, a loyal friend, a mother, wife, always positive and authentic.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

Question What disappointment has stayed with you longest? Failure & regret

Not getting into drama school when I was 17. In those days, the first thing people said was, “Where did you train?”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

Question What accomplishment matters most to you? Craft & work

That I am still creative.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

A radio presenter said I had yellow teeth – to my face. When I was 45, a manager in LA said I was too old to work in Hollywood; and then she rang my agent and said, “Can you tell your client never to wear that perfume again because it made me feel sick.”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗

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