You can avoid N+1 queries in API resources by using the whenLoaded() method.
This will only append the department if it’s already loaded in the Employee model.
Without whenLoaded() there is always a query for the department
class EmployeeResource extends JsonResource{    public function toArray($request): array    {        return [            'id' => $this->uuid,            'fullName' => $this->full_name,            'email' => $this->email,            'jobTitle' => $this->job_title,            'department' => DepartmentResource::make($this->whenLoaded('department')),        ];    }}
Tip given by @mmartin_joo