Offering help might not help you.

A new paper by Assistant Professor Dana Harari, co-authored by Jennifer Carson Marr from the University of Maryland and Michael R. Parke of the University of Pennsylvania published in the Academy of Management Journal compared two kinds of helping: reactive, when somebody asks for assistance; and anticipatory, offering help beforehand without being asked. The study showed that anticipatory help from higher-status coworkers is more likely to be viewed by employees as threatening and in result exposes the helper to negative light.