craft

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.

One of 24 questions in The Q&A here.

Add your answer

On the record

Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Arts and letters 55 Politics and public life 4 Business and finance 1

Read by age Any age In their thirties 14 In their forties 8 In their fifties 14 In their sixties 14 Seventy and beyond 9

Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008

Scooping ice cream is tougher than it looks. … Rows and rows of rock-hard ice cream can be brutal on the wrists. … I was less interested in what the job meant for my future and more concerned about what it meant for my jump shot.

Recorded LinkedIn, 'Here's the Scoop: Why My First Job Mattered', The Associated Press, 25 February 2016 source ↗

Keir Starmer

Leader of the opposition. I worked with the police service in Northern Ireland and then ran the Crown Prosecution Service. In each of those jobs, if something needed fixing, I could fix it. As leader of the opposition, you are not in power and it’s the most frustrating job I’ve ever had, and a job I hope I don’t have for much longer.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗

Caroline Lucas

A holiday job as a chambermaid at the Scratchwood Travelodge on the M1. The state some people leave their rooms in was a revelation.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 April 2024 source ↗

Jon Sopel

Children’s underwear department at Marks & Spencer, Oxford Circus. I was 16 years old, earning money in my summer holidays.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 October 2024 source ↗

0 answers from members

Nobody has answered this one yet.