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Craft & work

What is the worst job you have ever had?

230 answers answered between 2008 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A

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.

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On the record

Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Arts and letters 205 Politics and public life 10 Business and finance 6 Technology 1 Sport 8
Read by age Any age Before thirty 3 In their thirties 48 In their forties 49 In their fifties 54 In their sixties 47 Seventy and beyond 27
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Erin O'Connor English model
Shooting hosiery on top of an iceberg and getting my backside stuck to it.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2008 source ↗
Cybill Shepherd American actress and former model
A movie called The Return that was about cows from outer space.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 June 2008 source ↗
John Waters American filmmaker
I worked in a unisex clothes store for three days. Girls would say, 'Do I look fat in this?' I'd say, 'Yes.' I was fired.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 September 2008 source ↗
Joseph Fiennes English actor
Several: cutting the local vicar's lawn, shovelling shit from a stable, waiting tables, picking up and washing actors' smelly pants and socks.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 October 2008 source ↗
Omid Djalili British stand-up comedian and actor
Selling low-grade cookery books in west London office buildings.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2010 source ↗
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Scooping ice cream is tougher than it looks. … Rows and rows of rock-hard ice cream can be brutal on the wrists. … I was less interested in what the job meant for my future and more concerned about what it meant for my jump shot.
Recorded LinkedIn, 'Here's the Scoop: Why My First Job Mattered', The Associated Press, 25 February 2016 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 ↗
Elaine Paige English singer and actress
Maybe That’s Your Problem, a musical about premature ejaculation. It closed after only 18 performances.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 September 2016 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 ↗
Melanie Chisholm British pop singer
Working in a chip shop when I was 16. I gave my friends massive portions, but the smell was gross.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 October 2016 source ↗
Bill Bailey Comedian and musician
Telesales. I refused to wear a tie, but my argument that “They can’t see what we’re wearing” didn’t wash with the manager and I lasted a week.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 October 2016 source ↗
Ronald Harwood South African playwright and novelist
Unpacking scenery from a pantechnicon for the Carl Rosa Opera Company.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 November 2016 source ↗
Tess Daly English television presenter
Serving bar snacks in a pub in my teens. Once I spilled an entire family’s Sunday lunch into the dad’s lap.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 December 2016 source ↗

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