Chiwetel Ejiofor: 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 Chiwetel Ejiofor said elsewhere, not written here

At King’s College hospital when I was 16; the job was putting hundreds of pieces of A4 paper into A4 transparent envelopes. I lasted one day.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 October 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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Meghann Fahy

I’ve never really had a horrible job – I liked working at restaurants and being a nanny when I wasn’t acting.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Melanie Chisholm British pop singer

Working in a chip shop when I was 16. I gave my friends massive portions, but the smell was gross.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 October 2016 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 ↗

Rory Kinnear English actor

It’s a toss-up between organising a new filing system at Hammersmith & Fulham social services and relying on tips in the least popular restaurant in London to get through drama school.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 August 2017 source ↗