Joanna Scanlan: 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 Joanna Scanlan said elsewhere, not written here

At the BBC, in the old days, a piece of paper was sent to various households for them to report on what they’d watched that week. In my early 20s, I collated the data. It was deeply boring.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 March 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Adrian Dunbar Irish actor

Working in an abattoir.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 August 2022 source ↗

Tom Ellis Welsh actor

When I was 17, I worked in a warehouse in Rotherham doing an audit of truck parts. I counted nuts and bolts all day long.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 September 2021 source ↗

Frank Cottrell-Boyce British screenwriter, novelist and actor

I spent an advent in my late teens throttling turkeys.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 July 2023 source ↗

David Arquette American actor, producer, & former professional wrestler

When I was young, selling maps to stars’ homes in Hollywood, somebody flashed their wiener at me. It was traumatising.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 January 2021 source ↗