Clocking in early for a friend isn’t a favor. It’s a lie with your name next to it.

It feels like loyalty because the person benefiting is standing in front of you. What is actually happening is that a record now says somebody was working when they were not, and your name is the one that made the record say it. A favour only one of you can be sacked for is not a favour.

Say you will cover a shift, swap a shift, or drive them in, and decline the one that involves the timesheet. If a friend presses, that tells you how they are weighing your job against twenty minutes of theirs.