Alison Green (born 1973–74) is an American advice columnist, blogger and nonprofit manager best known as the author of the Ask a Manager blog. Green's work has been part of a proliferation of advice columns in the 21st century; Vulture has described Green as "the internet's preeminent workplace advice columnist." Green is the author of a book version of Ask a Manager and has published advice columns in U.S. News & World Report, New York magazine, Inc. and Slate. Prior to her career as a blogger and columnist, Green worked in the nonprofit sector, including several years as a senior staff member of the Marijuana Policy Project.
Education and nonprofit career Green graduated from Beloit College. She worked with marijuana legalization activist Rob Kampia at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws until 1995. In the late 1990s, Green worked for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, where she engaged in pie throwing at corporate executives targeted by PETA for animal testing and animal products, including John E. Pepper Jr. of Procter & Gamble and fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. Green later wrote on her blog that she had "[n]o regrets, still proud of it."
Green joined the Marijuana Policy Project in 2004 as chief of staff and deputy to executive director Kampia. A Washington City Paper investigation criticised Green for her handling of sexual harassment allegations against Kampia. After Kampia took a leave of absence in 2010, Green resigned from MPP. Several years later, amid the MeToo movement, Green said that standing with Kampia had been "the biggest regret" in her career.
Advice writing Green began doing workplace advice blogging on the side while working as a nonprofit chief of staff. When she began blogging in 2007, she said she expected more questions on dealing with micromanagement or getting job interviews but that readers were most focused on "the interpersonal weirdness that comes with having a job." Her advice and management columns have appeared in U.S. News & World Report, New York magazine, Inc. and Slate. In 2018, Green published Ask a Manager: Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work. Publishers Weekly said Green's approach in the book was "unfortunately limiting" by offering advice on "highly specific" problems instead of "general, adaptable strategies."
By 2017, Green said Ask a Manager was getting 2.4 million visits each month and more than 50 questions a day. Several of Green's blog posts have gone viral, including a question from someone whose coworker stole the letter writer's spicy food, got sick and blamed the letter writer; another in which a letter-writer's new boss was his ex whom he had ghosted; and one in which interns signed a petition to their employer to permit casual footwear. In 2019, Green asked her readers to share their salaries and job information in an anonymous Google Sheets document. It received 24,000 responses in under a week, which Green attributed to desires for pay transparency and the idea that discussing salary is taboo. The Washington Post said the spreadsheet had gone viral and described the response to the spreadsheet as part of a trend of "'Google-Doc' activism".
Vulture called Green "the internet's preeminent workplace advice columnist." Radio New Zealand called Green a "kind of agony aunt" of the office. Green's workplace advice writing has been characterized as part of a proliferation of advice columns along with S. Bear Bergman's "Ask Bear", Slate'''s "Dear Prudence", Choire Sicha's "Work Friend" and Cheryl Strayed's "Dear Sugar".
Green has been interviewed by major media outlets like The New York Times on the Great Resignation and workplace-as-family dynamics, Marketplace'' on pay equity and office holiday parties, and CNBC on conversations with supervisors.
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