Does the manager manage well? What does she do well, and what could she impriove (try not to tell her)
How does the money get tracked? Why are things done in certain ways? (efficiency? safety? inefficiency?). See if you can find ways to improve processes, and (carefully) suggest them to the influencers.

Burger King and McDonalds are finely tuned industrial machines, and you can sure learn a lot by observing how they have made everything work so well.

The reality turned out that it was the most fun I ever had on the job. Nobody but the other employees soon to be doomed to the same fate knew who was in the costume, and none of us were going to tell anyone else either. I got to wave to and hug or shake hands with all sorts of people from the high school who I never thought would go ga-ga over a person in a mouse costume (ah, yes, it was quite fun returning to school on Monday knowing what a fool the quarterback on the football team made of himself talking to a mouse, although neither of us would admit to anyone else that we knew anything of the matter).

On the same first job, I started out stocking shelves. When the shelves were all stocked, I’d grab a broom and sweep up the aisles, or head to the stockroom and help inventory new deliveries. From there, I was moved up to cashier. When there were no customers at the register, I still knew how to stock shelves, so would tidy up those within sight of the register or ask someone from the stockroom to bring some merchandise up that I could price and shelve while waiting for customers (these were the days when every item had to have price stickers individually placed on them; no bar codes). This led to them asking me to work as the evening manager. By then, I was starting college, though, so never took the offer (no longer had time).

I’m sharing this because it’s an example of how easy it is to get the respect of your bosses and earn promotions if you just keep busy during work hours. I’m now in a position where I’m the one who hires people, and this trait is severely lacking among many young employees. It seems so obvious and simple that you’re getting paid to work while at work that you may be shocked that it’s all it really takes to keep a job and even earn raises and promotions and added responsibilities that make the job more fun.

Jon–you can always read Evil HR Lady at work. HR is business related. You’re just increasing your skills and understandings of other departments. :>)

Catsagdn, it is so true. If you actually work at your job the whole time you are being paid you’ve beat more than half the competiton.

Not to mention the time goes faster and with beginning jobs you really want the time to go faster.