Glue Work: don’t get stuck with undervalued work

How to avoid becoming unstuck with Glue work

I recently came across the term “glue work” which really resonated with me. Glue work was termed by Tanya Reilly (a much better blog about the topic is hyperlinked) and is essentially important work that keeps a team or project together but can often go unrecognised. Without it things become unstuck, but with it we build as one, deliver value and continuously improve. It’s the essence of putting team health over individual recognition …no matter how big, small, painful or fun the task  may be it needs to be done for the good of the team. So, with that in mind, its crucial that we recognise and value glue work – hence, as mentioned earlier the alignment to the career pathway.

Some examples of glue work are here – which of these do you do yourself? Or perhaps ask others to do?

·      Writing documentation

·      Improving the new joiner process

·      Setting up team meetings

·      Improving team processes

·      Picking up ad hoc requests

·      Unblocking your team mates

All of these things take time, are valuable but sadly are often seen as less valuable and often receive little recognition.

So What Do We Do About It?

I’ve split out the below into 2 perspectives (a little crudely); Managers and non-managers.

From a managers perspective, you need to start by figuring out what your team is doing that is not written in their job descriptions. If the work you identify is truly valuable to your team’s mandate then it should be in the job description and even better in the documented and published career pathway for the role. If you don’t have this responsibility in your own role then speak to your Head of/Director who should. The idea here is to make sure no valuable work can be dismissed as not part of the role. This might include documentation, relationship-building, onboarding new team members, and building subject matter expertise.

Of course there will also be some work that just needs to be done, even though it is not particularly relevant to your team’s mandate – if this is a case, then you need to find a fair way to assign it. There will always be tasks that are non-promotable but need to get done, like scheduling meetings or planning team off-sites. Either you do that work as a manager, or explicitly assign a fair rotation of these tasks within your team. I would advise not to wait for volunteers. A recent Harvard study found that women were more likely to volunteer (and be volunteered for) work that could be considered glue work.

Another thing you can do as a manager is manage upwards! Ensure you celebrate the work as much as you would the development of a new feature, a new model or a new dashboard. Its not just the new shiny things that need celebrating.

What if you’re not a manager yet?

What can you do to make it more likely that you’ll get promoted (and eventually be able to make those changes yourself)?

Understand where you want to go. If you are aiming for a promotion or have a specific goal in mind, talk to your manager or mentor to understand what it takes to get there. But remember, “Promotable” is only meaningful when you know what promotion you’re aiming for.

The next thing to do is figure out what you are doing that is not on that path. Talk to your manager and/or mentor about those tasks - find out if that glue work will help you reach your goals, or if its work that isn’t valued. In some cases the work may be added to the pathway and therefore recognised as valuable, in others your manager may find a fairer way to allocate the work meaning you aren’t stuck with it on your own. Be mindful that your manager may not be aware of how long the work takes or how important it is so…tell the story of your glue work. How long does it take? why does it matter?

If your manager doesn’t initially consider your work progress toward a promotion, help them really understand it. Explain how long the work takes, and how it adds value. Quantify the impact if you can - have ad-hoc requests declined since you started spending more time training people on internal tools? Have defects reduced since you improved a process? How much quicker is the onboarding process with all that documentation you’ve done?

What if someone asks you specifically to do glue work? Understand what the work is, why its important. Making this clear from the start should help in either the fair allocation of the work or clear recognition for when it gets done.  

So, to summarise, Glue work puts the health of the team ahead of individual accomplishments. It is core to the success of individual projects, but also to maximizing the impact of teams overall. Explicitly valuing glue work and not relying on volunteers to do it helps team remain successful while levelling the playing field and improving gender equity.