You read the handbook in your first week. What really costs you may well not be in it. A hundred stories about “obvious” things worth knowing before they happen to you.
Training shows you the systems, and the handbook lists what is forbidden. Hardly anyone mentions the photo of your badge, the hidden column in a spreadsheet or the door held open out of courtesy. That is exactly where a first year at a company can end in a conversation nobody wants to have.
A selfie with your badge on your first day collects hundreds of likes. The card number under the barcode is enough for someone to walk onto the executive floor with your name on the security desk's screen.
The pricing goes to the client as a spreadsheet, and the purchase cost sits in a column nobody can see. Revealing it takes just one click, and your margin is back on the table in negotiations.
A familiar signature, the same footer and a polite request to update the account number. The transfer goes out the next day, and it soon turns out that the supplier's invoice has to be paid a second time.
Nobody warns you,
because everyone assumes
someone else already has.
“Too Obvious to Mention” is not another handbook. The people in these stories are kind, busy and well-meaning. That is why it is so easy to see yourself in them.
Each story leads from an ordinary decision, through its outcome, to a single rule. You read for a few minutes and remember it throughout your first year and long after.
You hold the door for someone with a laptop and a coffee who supposedly “left their card on the desk” by accident.
Two weeks later all the company's files are encrypted, and the camera footage shows your smile at the stranger in the doorway.
Always ask a stranger to use their own card.
You send a client pricing in a spreadsheet with a hidden cost column.
When the contract comes up for renewal, the client knows your margin to the penny.
Copy into a new file only what the recipient is meant to see.
You update an account number after a request in a familiar thread.
A transfer of €20,000 vanishes, and the invoice has to be paid a second time.
Confirm a change of bank details by phone, at the number from the contract.
After reading, you are left with a few questions you ask without thinking — before you post a photo, send a file or hold the door for someone.
You will recognize the moment when imposed haste or your own courtesy makes the decision for you.
You will reduce the risk of handing someone the key to data, money or doors — even in good faith, even to a familiar voice.
A question asked in your first week shows good sense, not a lack of professional experience.
When you are the one who knows, you will tell someone who is just starting out, on their very first day.
Read it when you start a new job. If you hire or lead a team, give it to everyone who is just starting to work with you.
For everyone getting to know new people, systems and habits, interns and trainees included.
For those who prepare the first day and want the rules to stick.
For mentors of newcomers who lack the time to tell them everything.
Printed book Przecież to jest oczywiste · ISBN 978-83-983481-6-4 Too Obvious to Mention · ISBN 978-83-983481-7-1 Manufacturer: TITUTO Sp. z o.o., ul. Zimowit 42, 35-605 Rzeszów, Poland · [email protected]
The e-book “Too Obvious to Mention” was written for people starting work at a new company, and its author is Marcin Jamro, PhD, DSc, Eng. It presents 100 stories from the first year at work, each ending in a rule — on data, money, office access and team conduct, among others. The e-book, in Polish or English, is available immediately at your request, and the printed edition signed by the author is on pre-order.
For people starting work at a new company, interns and trainees included, and for HR departments and team leaders who want to give it to new members of their team. It requires no technical knowledge.
“The Luxury of Not Knowing” deals with threats to boards, executive assistants and families. “Too Obvious to Mention” describes the first year at a company from the point of view of someone still getting to know its people, systems and habits. Both books share the same form — a short story that ends in a rule.
You can buy “Too Obvious to Mention” as an e-book in PDF format or as a printed edition. If you request immediate access when ordering the e-book, you will receive the download link within minutes of payment. Without that request, we make the file available 14 days after purchase — until then, you keep your right of withdrawal. The printed edition is on pre-order: the author signs each copy with the name of the person you give us when you order, or with his autograph alone, and we ship it within 30 days of your order.
In Polish and English. Your purchase covers a specific language edition — the Polish one (“Przecież to jest oczywiste”) or the English one (“Too Obvious to Mention”). You choose the language when you buy.
From the e-book, yes. If you do not request immediate access when ordering, you have 14 days to withdraw, and we make the file available 14 days after the contract is concluded. If you request access right away, the right of withdrawal expires as soon as the file is made available. The printed edition with a dedication is made to your specification, for one named person, so the right of withdrawal does not cover it. You can withdraw from the purchase of a copy signed with the autograph alone within 14 days of receiving it.
You download the file in Odoardo ID™, and we also send the link to your e-mail address. We recommend saving the file after purchase so it stays on your computer or phone. Corrected versions of the edition are made available free of charge in Odoardo ID™.
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