We draw from social categorization theory and the actor–observer hypothesis to extend previous research regarding receiving high levels of help from team members. Specifically, we explore how a team member's performance feedback on how they handled a disproportionately heavy share of the team's workload and how their racial distance from the rest of their teammates affect the amount of helping that person receives from their teammates. Results from a laboratory study in which 79 teams worked on a computerized, decision‐making task demonstrated a three‐way interaction between workload, performance feedback, and the racial distance between the feedback recipient and the rest of their teammates. Racially distant negative feedback recipients who had a disproportionately heavy share of their team's workload received less help from teammates than their racially similar counterparts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.