Comment by protastus

Very interesting framing for tension I experience as a manager, but never saw formalized.

At work, ask culture puts higher burden on managers. Especially when requests cross the line into unreasonable territory, and the manager has to study the problem with objectivity, and politely articulate why the request cannot be granted.

Example: request for time off overlaps with important deliverables due by the requester. In guess culture, the requester studies their schedule and does not make a request if there's a conflict. In ask culture, the requester asks anyway and if the manager approves, they have now entangled the manager into what could be a bad business decision.