The Advice Tax

You tell a coworker, "The client presentation ran long, so I had to cut it off." She nods, leans over, and gives you a six-point lesson on how she would have handled it. You say, "Right, I did most of that." She rephrases it anyway. Now a minor work story has become a performance review conducted by someone who does not manage you. Welcome to The Workplace Playbook. This is the advice tax: the moment a friendly coworker treats every small problem you mention as evidence that you need coaching.