Millions of people read 'Ask A Manager' for work advice—here's the Careertok trend she's 'super supportive of'

CNBC

15-05-2025

Alison Green has seen plenty of work trends come and go in her 18 years running "Ask A Manager," an online column that has reached millions of readers where she answers questions on everything from dealing with office jerks to quitting a toxic job.
The explosion of people talking about work on TikTok in recent years has made things even more interesting. Ever since the pandemic upended the work world, people have posted their takes on #CareerTok topics including the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, conscious un-bossing and the never-ending debate about how to dress for the office.
Within all of that, there's one big trend that Green is "super supportive of," she tells CNBC Make It: The "act your wage" mentality.
"Act your wage" videos began floating around in 2022 as people discussed the ways they set boundaries at work, said "no" to additional unpaid tasks and overall challenged the appeal of hustle culture.
As Green sees it, she's in favor of the attitude that encourages people to be "really aware of what you're being paid to do and what you're not being paid to do, and [not feeling] like you have to take on every problem in the organization [or work] overtime if you're not being paid to do it," she says.
That said, she adds, she does see advice that takes the boundary-setting message to an "unrealistic level."
"It's more nuanced," she says. "If you want to move up and get ahead and be considered a competitive candidate for higher level jobs there, it's a little tricky to say, 'I'm just not going to do any of that,'" Green says.
"But I think that the general cultural move toward recognizing 'You're not buying all of my time and all of my energy, you're buying a limited amount of it,' is a really good thing. I would love to see the culture move more in that direction."
Green encourages early-career professionals to take online career advice with a grain of salt. Essentially, what's normal workplace behavior versus what's not will depend a lot on your industry and particular work environment.
It's better to take advice someone who knows what your line of work is like and can advise on specific boundaries, for example by offering, "Yeah that does kind of suck. It's also a norm in this field. And if you're going to work in this field, you need to expect to run into some of that," Green says.
It's not like you'll be able to say "no" to every directive you don't like without some repercussions, Green says.
Overall, "I think some content creators are speaking about the world as it should be, rather than the world as it is," Green says. "And when you're an advice consumer, it's important to be able to recognize when that's happening."