Jessica Brown Findlay: 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 Jessica Brown Findlay said elsewhere, not written here

I used to do silver service waitressing at parties and events. The job was great, but there was constant harassment and groping from older men, and I hadn’t found my voice yet. It’s terrifying when you are young and you need a job.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 232 →

Rachel Whiteread English artist

Serving tea in an insurance office to people who seemed to despise me at the age of 16 was pretty unpleasant.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 December 2017 source ↗

Shane MacGowan Irish singer-songwriter

Helping to slaughter farmyard animals as a kid; watching while my aunties cut them up to get their guts out and seeing eggs floating around in the hens. That made me become a vegetarian.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 December 2021 source ↗

Penny Lancaster

Clearing up someone’s sick – it was on police duty.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 September 2025 source ↗

Lupita Nyong'o Actress

I waited tables for one night at the turn of the century. They were being fussy about how I put the food on the plates, and I couldn’t have cared less.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 October 2019 source ↗