MJ
I did work in retail while I was getting into presenting and the hours were long and you were always on your feet. It was good vibes, though.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 June 2023 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
View all 230 →
Chiwetel Ejiofor
English actor
At King’s College hospital when I was 16; the job was putting hundreds of pieces of A4 paper into A4 transparent envelopes. I lasted one day.
Ann Patchett
American author
I’ve never had a terrible job. I’ve been a cook, waitress, bookseller, teacher, freelance writer. I know what the bad jobs are and I haven’t done them.
Roger Allam
English actor
Picking tiny bits of glass out of long grass for Haringey council, 45 years ago.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy
British journalist
I did a terrible job of fixing the downstairs loo once.
More from Maya Jama
View profile →I can be properly stubborn sometimes – but that’s me being a classic Leo.
As someone who loved her family and friends, worked hard, got successful and had a lovely time in the process.
My phone and social media.
My Birkin bags, which I plan to pass on to my future children.
Probably missing out on roles I really, really wanted, but I’m a big believer that if it’s for you, you’ll have it. So those clearly weren’t for me.
When people are disingenuous.
More on craft & work
- What accomplishment matters most to you? 192 answers
- How do you tell when a piece of work is done? 67 answers
- What do you do when you feel creatively stuck? 63 answers
- How does a new piece of work usually begin for you? 60 answers
- How much rewriting or revision do you typically do? 46 answers
- What part of your job would surprise outsiders because it takes up so much of your time? 41 answers
Also answered this
Rory Kinnear, Karamo Brown, Gregory Porter, Liev Schreiber, Zoe Ball, Martin Compston
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All craft & work questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject