Naga Munchetty: 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.

Naga Munchetty

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Double-glazing sales when I was about 16 – on the phone, cold calling. Horrendous.

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

Others on this question

View all 230 →

Rebecca Ferguson

I didn’t enjoy a bar job and glass collecting – people could be really rude.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 December 2023 source ↗

Chris Hoy British track cyclist, 1994–2013

Delivering papers in the freezing cold for my granny. I got paid in Panini football stickers, so it wasn’t all bad.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 February 2018 source ↗

Terence Conran British restaurateur and designer

When I was 19, I washed up in the basement of a Paris restaurant that stank of rotted food. I did it for six months, until I was promoted to vegetable boy.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 August 2016 source ↗

Gregory Porter

When I worked at a dog food company shovelling the exterminated rats.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 April 2025 source ↗

More from Naga Munchetty

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Question What one change would most improve the quality of your daily life? Daily life

Being able to cram the quality of eight hours’ sleep into four.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 July 2025 source ↗

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

It would be a racist comment.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 July 2025 source ↗

Question When were you most embarrassed? Failure & regret

I was 17 and about to go on a first date with my first boyfriend. I was so desperate for my mum not to meet him that I was trying to get to the door before she did. I ran down the stairs as she opened it, and slid down the last five steps on my arse.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 July 2025 source ↗