Stephanie Beacham: 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.

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I was 15 working in Boots on Barnet High Street and it was terrifying. At coffee break you had to know whose cup was whose, and taking the wrong cup was a crime. I’ve met bitches, but I tell you they started out in Boots in Barnet.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 May 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Steve Pemberton British actor and comedian

Collecting glasses in a Lancashire pub. Try to take a pint glass with a millimetre of foam still in it, and you get a lit cigarette on the back of your hand.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 May 2019 source ↗

Juliet Stevenson

I worked in a supermarket on the Kings Road when I was 17, standing by the beers, wines and spirits to make sure people didn’t shoplift. They were such horrible employers that I didn’t care whether people shoplifted or not.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 May 2026 source ↗

Jo Nesbø Norwegian writer and musician

I worked on a trawler and I was seasick the whole time.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2026 source ↗

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Irish actor

Two days as a labourer in my 15th summer.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 August 2018 source ↗