I worked at River Island in December 2013 as a shop assistant. Here's an old diary entry from back then, describing how I felt after a week working there.

I’ve been working at River Island for a week so far. It's been fine. It's been enjoyable actually. I like it.

I essentially manage the men’s department by myself. Often I'm the only member of staff there. And I quite like that. I feel as though I'm trusted. Plus there's no managers breathing down my neck.

And I like using the till. That sounds stupid – it’s only a till. But I’ve only worked there seven days, and they already trust me with money-handling. In fact, my favorite thing is the till, because it’s more interesting and technical than just putting away clothes and helping customers.

But there’s a lot of negative points about working at River Island. For example, we have to arrive to work ten minutes before the start of our shift. This is because we need five minutes to put coats in lockers, and another five minutes for a team brief with a manager. It’s stupid. They’re paying me minimum wage and yet I have to arrive early, unpaid. It’s a slap in the face.

Plus the team brief itself is pointless. The manager just tells you your targets for the day, such as how many clothes you have to sell. They’ll say something like, “You have to sell £1500 of menswear today”. And if you don’t meet the target, nothing happens, so what’s the point of the targets anyway?

One of the managers often gets angry with me. Take today for example. I was late for my shift. But it wasn’t really my fault; let me explain why. I’d actually arrived early, so I could sort out my uniform, but that took longer than expected. And the team brief dragged on for about ten minutes. So when I did finally reach the men’s department, ready to work, I was about fifteen minutes late, even though I’d got to the shop itself early. The manager then declared I would have to stay behind after my shift to make up for it. It’s funny, it's like being back at school.

Another time I annoyed the manager is by popping upstairs to return a pair of shoes to the women’s department. When I returned a minute later, the manager scolded me for leaving the department. Jesus, I was only gone for a minute! I’d made sure a colleague was watching the department for me while I was gone. But this colleague wasn’t till-trained – and my manager explained there must always someone on the floor who can use the till. Oh, wah wah boo hoo.

Some policies are really stupid. One poicy is having to introduce yourself to every customer, by saying “Can I help you?” or “Let me know if I can help you.” A manager once caught me seemingly avoiding one customer, and hissed, “Paul, you need to go talk to that customer.” But I had been talking to him - for the last five minutes straight. I had to leave him alone at some point so he could actually do some bloody shopping. The manager just simply assumes I’m not talking to customers.