Everybody has to start somewhere. You can’t be expected to know everything immediately. There’s a learning curve, a period of adjustment before you can even begin to think you know how it all works. This takes time, and even a few blunders that you have to trust will make you laugh someday.

In the meantime, take a deep breath and read “Dear Intern,” edited by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, and remember that others have stumbled before you.

The guy who heated a sandwich for 45 minutes in the breakroom microwave. The woman who accidentally tucked the hem of her skirt in the back of her underwear. Yep, a few of these kinds of stories circulate in your workplace because, let’s face it, they’re legendary.

The people who committed those blunders are probably still embarrassed over them – and so was the hapless intern who, in 2021, was blamed for a very large corporate oops on a very large social media site.

But, says Nelson-Greenberg, despite that the bosses were outraged, the intern wasn’t publicly ridiculed. Instead, the internet offered comfort as folks shared “their own calamitous experiences.”

One former intern confessed to helping his new boss find a lost item by turning on the lights... in a darkroom. A number of people admit sending emails or texts complaining about the boss, noticing (too late) that the boss was included in the “send” line. Oops. Another fell asleep on a keyboard and accidentally “ordered six million cases of eggs.”

Never lie and say you’re sick and then leave town for a party. Never lie and say you “fluently” speak a second language when claramente no lo haces. Never annoy famous and powerful people because you didn’t fully read your boss’s instructions. Never make fun of a client when the client’s around. Always check the bottom of your shoes after coming back from lunch. And always double-check the address before showing a client their new website.

We’ve all been there, for better or worse. Usually worse, and the stories of your biggest gaffes will absolutely last at your workplace longer than you will. In “Dear Intern,” mistakes were made and they’re laughable – now.

Probably not so funny when they happened, though, which is where this book is most helpful. Nelson-Greenberg takes the best of the worst of #dearintern and offers them up to new interns, former interns and bosses in a format that’s not at all heavy. Reading it’s like being in the breakroom, and those last few minutes before everybody goes back to work: There’s plenty of sharing of tales that undoubtedly caused a few red-faces once and happy stories of surviving an oops.

Bosses will find reminders that patience is key. Readers will find a little bit of teasing inside this book, but it’s told in a roll-your-eyes, join-the-club kind of way.

This is the book you want for a new grad or new intern, and keep a copy in the C-Suite. When you need it, grab “Dear Intern” and just start it somewhere.

Terri Schlichenmeyer’s reviews of business books are read in publications throughout the U.S. and Canada.