Chris Bonington: 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 Chris Bonington said elsewhere, not written here

I left the army and got a job with Unilever in Northern Ireland. They were very strict and you had to have a hat, and when you went into a shop you had to raise your hat to the shopkeeper and then sell your wares. I was selling margarine.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 March 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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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 ↗

Ralf Little English actor, writer, former semi-professional footballer

For two weeks I worked behind the players’ bar at Bolton Wanderers football club – footballers don’t tip.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 February 2020 source ↗

Leona Lewis

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 ↗

Björn Ulvaeus Swedish musician

A cabaret act with Agnetha, Frida and Benny. It was in a nightclub in Gothenburg and one night we had seven in the audience. It was before we found out that we were a pop group.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2020 source ↗