Agreed, And I've been asked the latter in a variety of contexts. In many cases it was more of a door that the manager was opening, and I've had full discussions

Agreed, And I've been asked the latter in a variety of contexts. In many cases it was more of a door that the manager was opening, and I've had full discussions with them about not wanting to take my career or skill focus that direction. Boundaries in a working relationship are as important as in any other relationship. If you don't set them many people will not think further about using you up completely. And then you can say goodbye to getting vacation when you want/need it. If they're just using it to passively assert something and come across as the "good guy" rather than directing that they need me to do something for X reason, I've always considered that to be on them. I like being spoken to like an adult. Sure I don't need full context depending on my role, but if you need something done and I'm the only available or most reasonable resource then just tell me what you need.