Cover a coworker’s shift once and you’re a hero. Cover it every week and you’re a doormat. Know the difference.

Doing somebody a favor once is generous and memorable. Doing it every week becomes the schedule, and the gratitude fades exactly as fast as the expectation grows. That shift happens with no conversation anywhere in it, and the person benefiting may genuinely not notice, because from their side nothing changed. You are the only one keeping a total.

Say yes when you can and say no plainly when you cannot, without building an excuse around it. If it has already become routine, break the pattern once and see how that lands. Reliable and endlessly available are not the same word.