* Names have been changed to protect the innocent

5.30am Oh bugger, the alarm, roll over and have a snooze!

5. 45 Am. Oh bugger, better get up I'm late! Just gonna have time for a quick shower and a brew before I have to leave.

6.30am, at the bus stop. Could have had an extra 10 minutes, the bus is late!

6.53, get into work, and luckily got there with a few minutes to spare. Grab a brew and take it into the office while I pull off the schedules for the day. The schedules tell me who is in, what they are doing and when their breaks are and for how long. Ring the duty manager and see if anyone has rung in sick, and if anyone has called to say they will be back it's a good day, one coming back and nobody off yet!

Have a look at I4B to see how we did yesterday on queue length... Wow! Am amazed, we passed by 3 customers and only had 2 red hours! Print off copies for the boss and then it's down to the cash office to begin the change run.

There are three parts to the change run, the pre run reconciliation, the run itself and the post run reconciliation.

SARAH* already there when I go down, and between us we reconcile the change safe from yesterday, add in today's money and then reconcile the two together to make a grand sum for today's run. Then it's off to the security room to collect a guard and then the fun begins.

7.45 am, the cashiers begin to arrive. There is an issue with self serve and 73 won't allow us to log in. Try 3 reboots and nothing. Phone call to the help desk at 9am.

Continue with the change run and have it completed by 8.20 so it's a trundle to cash office to reconcile the safe and to pull off the days reports (Half a tree every day in those reports! Why oh why can't we go back to the old book?)

The change safe shows a loss of £20, so we recheck again, and there it is, hiding behind a bag of pound coins! With the safe all reconciled and no issues, we can sign off the day's change run reports and the cash office are happy bunnies once more.

8.30am I go back to checkouts and do my daily walk round the department, checking practically everything from customer facilities inside and outside, trolleys, baskets, saving stamps, leaflets, photo booth etc and make a note of any next steps in the log book.

9am Phone the helpdesk about checkout 73. After waiting 15 minutes to speak to somebody, am told to perform a number of checks (which we have already done!) given a reference number and told to call back in 30 minutes if these checks do not resolve the issue! Decide to go for a quick fag then call back!

9.10am Take diary, holiday book and overtime book into wages and do the exceptions. There are two that I cannot answer, so am given "the look" by our fierce (but ever so nice!) Hello Joan*(she is a member!) and made to promise that I will come back with answers by 12 so they can sign off.

9.30 am Call the helpdesk back and FINALLY!!!!! They will send an engineer out today (hopefully) to checkout 73.

10am Team 5. This is the daily meeting where we discuss the previous day's takings, any outstanding issues, SYA etc. Supposed to take 5 minutes but has been known to last an hour.

10.15am BREAKTIME. 2 slices of toast, a brew and a giggle with the smokers!

10.45, as I was the early team leader, I am the "duty" team leader until I finish, so I have the ultimate accountability for 1 in front until then. It's back down to checkouts to manage the line, sort the breaks, do the bank holiday hours, training and answer any cashier and customer queries. Today it's legal and fire training that is the priority, so that is my main focus for the rest of the morning. My trusted Team 5 champion is on the case and is busy chasing people down getting them to read and sign! Breaks are on track, Hot legs 56 is on the case with till checks. All is running smoothly. But Lo! What is this? A coach load of customers has just pulled up and descended on checkouts en masse! I get everyone back on a till quick, and within a couple of minutes the rush has died down and we can continue as before, although we are now 3 breaks behind. Not to worry, I have 3 staff coming in in 5 minutes, will soon catch up. cashiers signed off for legal and fire training, a full bank of till checks, all cashiers have been team fived, all the returns have been put back and carriers and checkout equipment replenished. That reminds me, I have to do a consumables count after lunch..

13.30pm. Lunch time! An hour off, it's out to starbucks, grab a coffee, couple of phone calls and nosey round the shops.

14.30pm Back to work, go and do the consumables count, overstocked on carrier bags, under stocked on wine carriers and bags for life. Go and have a chat with stock control, see can we change the capacities to manage the stock better.

15.00 Go and check my "swap out" items, what needs sending for repair, what is ok? Today I have 2 printers and a scanner, Phone helpdesk and they will send me new ones in 3 days.

15.30 I do a welcome back meeting with one of my cashiers.absence % is really high, and she is worried about the ARI meeting. Explain what the ARI meeting is, what will happen and who with. We discuss her bank holiday hours and when she wants to take them and I sort out wage query for her whilst we are in the office.

15.55 Get a sick call for tomorrow, know he will be off for a couple of weeks, so make amendments in the schedules, check to make sure that we are covered and will have enough staff in tomorrow night, yep, we are ok.

16.00 phone down to checkouts, see how they are doing. Let them know that I have left the building!