Covering for a teammate who’s struggling, without making them pay for it later, is grace in its natural habitat.

Help with a price attached is not really help. Covering somebody’s shift and then reminding them of it for a month, or carrying a teammate and letting everyone know you carried them, converts a gift into a debt, and they will feel the invoice arrive. Doing it without the follow-up is the whole thing. It is also what you would want if you were the one struggling.

Cover for somebody this week and then never bring it up. Not in front of the group, not as a joke, not when you need something later.