Jack Davenport: 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.

JD

Jack Davenport

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Bicycle courier: it was literally dicing with death on a minute-to-minute basis for 12 hours a day. It was terrifying and exhausting.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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Cockroach stamper at a dried-flower factory.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2025 source ↗

Giving barium enemas. I used to be a radiographer in Coventry.

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

Julien Macdonald Welsh fashion designer

Working in a betting office on Grand National day. I was 17 and my hair was scrunched like Mick Hucknall’s.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 October 2016 source ↗

Fran Lebowitz American author and public speaker

I just hate to work, so I can’t choose one.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 June 2022 source ↗

More from Jack Davenport

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Question What would you most want to leave your children? Death & what remains

An understanding that kindness is the answer.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

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

Self-loathing that rises to the level of deploring.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains

About five years ago, a half-tonne tree branch fell and missed me by three feet.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

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

Letting down the people I love.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

Question As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself? Identity & self

Not a child, which was short-sighted of me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

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

Anyone who speaks truth to power at the risk of their own safety.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

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