What is the worst job you have done?

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.

Recorded Greg James said elsewhere, not written here
When I was at school, I had a summer job where I had to buff blocks of plastic for a display unit. The factory only remembered to give us masks on day three.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 March 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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I quite enjoyed all my retail jobs (I worked in H&M and Gap), but the worst times were the sale periods. The summer sales – awful.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 December 2023 source ↗
Gloria Steinem Writer and feminist organiser
Being a salesgirl in a baby shop where the others said things like, “He’s Jewish, but she’s American.” Also, after college, being a waitress in London, and trying to make change in the old money of shillings and pence.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2017 source ↗
In South Africa I washed cars, I danced in parking lots and shopping malls, and was a children’s entertainer.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 March 2026 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 ↗

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