Marcus Mumford: 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 Marcus Mumford said elsewhere, not written here

Working in farming in Somerset at 18, there were elements that were awful, and they were all really edifying. I mean, feeding chickens in sleet was hard work but I am so glad I did it.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 February 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Emeli Sandé British singer

I was a perfume girl at a department store in Aberdeen. I was so bad at it, I didn’t make it to the end of the day.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2017 source ↗

Meera Syal British writer and actress

Having to clean out my daughter’s digs at university. The memory of the state of that toilet still lives with me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 April 2018 source ↗

Edith Bowman Scottish radio DJ and television presenter

When I was a kid I was a chambermaid in my family’s hotel, and I once found a strap-on that someone had left behind.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 February 2021 source ↗

Róisín Murphy

When I was a teenager, I worked in a vegetable shop on Saturdays, and the guy had a rotation of 10 pretty teenagers working for him and was really sleazy. I only went twice because the second time he made me go up to his flat above the shop and clean his toilet, and he was watching me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 September 2023 source ↗