A Love Letter to Alison Green, the Workplace Whisperer

Alison,

I don’t think you know this, but you’re part of the reason I’m here.

Somewhere between reading Ask a Manager in my early career and now spending my days deep in the messy, complicated world of organizational culture, something clicked. I might not have appreciated it at the time, but your advice column is a masterclass in how workplaces really function, the paradoxes they force us to navigate, and the way culture is shaped in the smallest, most absurd, and sometimes deeply unfair moments.

Because let’s be real… work is weird. It’s weird that we’re expected to professionally navigate the kind of behavior that would send anyone running in a social setting. It’s weird that some companies will fight tooth and nail to keep a high-performing bully instead of an entire team that’s quietly suffering. It’s weird that “just be direct” is somehow radical advice in so many workplaces.

And yet, you’ve always managed to bring clarity to the chaos.

You’ve made it okay to say:
🔹 Yes, your boss really is being unreasonable.
🔹 No, you do not have to tolerate a toxic workplace.
🔹 Yes, professionalism should go both ways.
🔹 No, “being a team player” doesn’t mean setting yourself on fire to keep others warm.

More than that, you’ve shown the power of boundaries, clear expectations, and—at the core of it all—basic human decency at work.

Your work helped me realize that the unspoken norms, policies, and behaviors of a company are the culture. That every ridiculous, frustrating, or baffling workplace scenario you dissect isn’t just a one-off—it’s a reflection of the systems, values, and accountability structures (or lack thereof) shaping the experience of work.

It’s why I do what I do now. Because these things matter. Because culture isn’t a poster on the wall, it’s how people experience their jobs every single day. And because you were one of the first people to show me just how much there is to unravel beneath the surface.

So, thank you. For being the workplace whisperer. For giving people a framework to make sense of it all. And for proving, again and again, that culture is built (or broken) in the tiniest moments.

With admiration,
Krista