Help One Overwhelmed Colleague and Strengthen Your Position

Helping an overwhelmed colleague builds the kind of goodwill that matters during layoffs. When leadership considers who adds value beyond their job description, they remember people who helped the team function when things got difficult.

This isn't about becoming everyone's problem solver. It's about offering targeted help on a small task that genuinely makes someone's day easier while demonstrating your capability.

Choose a colleague who is visibly struggling. Not someone having a bad day, but someone who is consistently behind, staying late, or mentioning repeatedly that they can't keep up with their workload.

The help you offer should be specific and limited. Not "let me know if you need anything," which puts the burden on them to figure out what you can do. Offer to take one specific task off their plate.

Look for tasks that meet three criteria:

• Something you can complete in under two hours
• Something you're qualified to do well
• Something that genuinely helps them rather than creating more work through coordination

Examples that work:

Formatting a document or presentation they're working on. If someone is buried in work and mentions they need to finish a deck for a meeting, offering to format the slides while they focus on content saves them real time.

Reviewing something for errors before it goes out. If a colleague is rushing to finish a report or email to stakeholders and worried about mistakes, offering to proofread it takes one worry off their list.

Handling a routine administrative task. If someone mentions they're behind on expense reports, meeting notes, or updating a tracker, and you can do it quickly, that's practical help.

Taking notes in a meeting they need to attend but can't fully focus on because they're multitasking. Offering to document the discussion and send them a summary afterward lets them participate without the additional burden of capturing everything.

The key is identifying help that saves them time without requiring extensive back-and-forth. If coordinating with you takes longer than doing the task themselves, you're not actually helping.

When you offer help, be specific: "I noticed you mentioned you're behind on the monthly report. I can pull the data and format the tables if that would help. Should take me about an hour."

This is different from "I'm happy to help with anything" which sounds generous but gives them nothing concrete to accept. Specific offers get accepted because the person can immediately see how it helps.

After you help, don't make a production of it. Send them the completed task with a brief note: "Here's the formatted version. Let me know if you need anything adjusted." Don't announce it to the team or your manager. Let your colleague mention it if they choose to.

The value of this help appears in several ways.

First, your colleague appreciates it and will remember when they're asked about who contributes to the team. When leadership asks for feedback on who should stay during restructuring, people naturally mention colleagues who helped them during difficult times.

Second, you demonstrated capability outside your immediate responsibilities. You showed you can step into different types of work and deliver quality results quickly. That versatility matters when leadership is deciding who can adapt to changing needs.

Third, you built a relationship based on actual help rather than abstract networking. Your colleague now sees you as someone who solves problems rather than someone who talks about solving problems.

This approach only works if the help is genuine and useful. Offering to help with something you can't do well, or something that doesn't actually save them time, creates the opposite effect. They'll see you as someone who creates more work while trying to look helpful.

Similarly, offering help that requires them to manage you defeats the purpose. If they have to explain everything, check your work, and fix your mistakes, you've made their situation worse.

One small task this week. One colleague who genuinely needs help. One specific offer that saves them real time. That's the action that builds the kind of workplace relationships that matter when leadership makes difficult decisions.