5 Reasons to Fill-In for Your Coworker

By Lorena Roberts on October 17, 2017

We’ve all been there. You’re on the couch on a Friday afternoon, enjoying the fact that you haven’t been scheduled for the night shift at work, you’ve made yourself your favorite beverage, and you’re about to turn on the Netflix series you’ve been binge watching. And your cell phone rings.

It’s a coworker of yours. They’ve come down with some kind of strange sickness — something that can’t be fixed with ibuprofen or cough drops. If it’s not your coworker, it’s your coworker’s kid. You’re annoyed. You’ve been caught in a bad spot. Should you fill in for them? Or should you tell them to call the others on the list?

After all, this is your only day off this week. 

This is easily one of our most dreaded situations. There’s nothing worse than having to change your plans last minute to fill in for someone. You need the money, but the next episode is just waiting for you to devour it. So should you fill in for your coworker? Absolutely. Here are five reasons why.

1. The most obvious

Once you do them a favor by filling in for them, they’ll “owe you.” The next time your friends all decide to do a last minute get-together for drinks and a movie, you’ll have someone you can call and guilt trip into covering your shift. Before you agree to cover their shift, you can establish that the next time you need a shift covered, they’ll be the first person you call. They’ll have to say yes, obviously. They need you! 

2. You could use the money

Covering someone else’s shift means you get paid. Sure, you could spend the next 5-7 hours watching Netflix, or you could get off your butt and pad your bank account for the month. It’s a small price to pay for the amount of financial anxiety that will be relieved. If you cover for them once and you hate it and it’s totally not worth it, don’t do it again.

But at least take the plunge, be a little more driven than usual, and appreciate the fact that you’ve been given an extra opportunity to make some money.

3. Your managers will appreciate it

You’ll probably get kudos from your manager if you cover a shift. After all, if you didn’t do, who knows who would’ve ended up coming in, if anyone at all. Making sure your managers know you gave up your Friday night to help out a coworker will give you some brownie points. The next time you have to ask off in advance, the more likely they are to give it to you if you’ve shown your willingness to work hard and help out the team in other ways.

Totally worth it — especially if you’ll be using them as a reference in the future.

4. It’s the nice thing to do

Admit it. Your coworker needs you. They’re in a crunch. The nice thing to do is cover the shift for them. You’ll be able to build a relationship/friendship out of this (hopefully). Being nice to people only brings you good things in the future. Be willing to give a little to get some goodness in return.

Put yourself in their situation — you came down with something at the last minute and you don’t want to be written up for being a “no-show.” You really need someone to pull through for you. Wouldn’t you want them to say yes?

5. You won’t regret it

If you don’t spend the entire shift thinking about the episode you’re missing, you’ll come home glad you ended up taking the shift for your coworker. You made some money, proved your drive to your managers, and helped out someone in need. Now let’s just hope they say “thank you.”

What you don’t want to do is walk into it with a negative attitude. I can guarantee you’ll regret it if that’s the way you show up for work. Be gracious and willing to help someone. You’re becoming a better person because of it, aren’t you?

But be careful …

There should always be a disclaimer of things that can happen if you do end up covering for them. You definitely don’t want to make this a habit. You don’t want a call from them every week trying to give you their shift. Even worse, you don’t want your managers suggesting to everyone who needs to switch to call you to pick that shift up. That would easily be the worst thing that could come out of this.

As long as you draw boundaries with your coworkers and managers, you won’t be taken advantage of.

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