Ask any senior engineer what really keeps a team moving, and you’ll hear about the “invisible” work: clarifying a vague ticket, improving a flaky test, catching a risky change in code review, mentoring a new hire, or running a crisp hand‑off. This is glue work—vital to delivery speed and quality, but often ignored by dashboards and promotion packets.

What Is Glue Work (and Why It Makes Teams Faster)

Glue work is any activity that increases the probability that your team ships the right thing, quickly and safely—even if it doesn’t show up as code churn. Examples include:

• Clarifying vague requirements before work starts
• Reviewing PRs for safety, clarity, and maintainability
• Writing docs, runbooks, and upgrade guides
• Mentoring juniors; pairing on tricky bugs
• Driving cross‑team alignment and hand‑offs
• Facilitating stand‑ups, demos, and retros with intent

Well‑distributed glue work accelerates throughput: fewer reworks, less thrash, clearer ownership, and faster decisions.

The Hidden Risks of Ignoring Glue Work

• Hero bottlenecks: A few people do all the unblocking (see The “Hero” Developer Problem), others stall.
• Invisible impact: Promotions over‑index on features shipped, under‑index on system health.
• Knowledge silos: The team can’t rotate or scale safely.
• Burnout: High performers do two jobs—builder and glue.

A Simple System to Make Glue Work Visible

1) Define and socialize what counts

In a team workshop, co‑create a short definition and a sample list specific to your context. Use it to set expectations and avoid accidental gender or role bias.

2) Track it lightly (without killing the vibe)

• Weekly glue notes (2–3 bullets in your sprint doc or 1:1 doc)
• PR review health (review depth, not just counts)
• Docs/runbooks shipped, updated, or retired
• Mentoring moments (pairing, design feedback, onboarding support)
• Ritual facilitation (stand‑ups, demos, retros)

Glue Work – Weekly Notes
- Clarified acceptance criteria for Ticket ABC‑123 (reduced risk of rework)
- Mentored N. on test strategy; paired on flaky test fix
- Reviewed 3 PRs; flagged data race; suggested logging standard
- Facilitated retro; captured 2 process experiments

3) Bake recognition into your rituals

• Stand‑ups: Add “glue wins” in 30 seconds (The Daily Stand‑up).
• Retros: Call out unsung enabling work (The Sprint Retrospective).
• Demos/Business reviews: Include docs, test coverage, and reliability upgrades (Presenting Your Team’s Work).
• Celebrate properly: Share authentic kudos that name the behavior (Celebrating a Team Win).

4) Distribute glue work fairly

Rotate responsibilities and delegate intentionally so glue work grows skills instead of cementing roles.

5) Reward it explicitly in reviews and promotions

Make glue work part of the rubric. Calibrate on specific, cross‑verified evidence, not vibes.

• Recognizing “Glue Work” – practice a review conversation that truly values enabling impact
• Performance Calibration Meeting – advocate for unsung contributions
• Giving a Performance Review to a High‑Performer – retain your stars
• Giving a Performance Review to a Solid but Stagnant Employee – use glue work as a growth lever

Scripts You Can Use This Week

Script A – Spotlight glue work in 1:1s

“I noticed you caught a risky migration in code review and unblocked two teammates. That’s high‑leverage glue work. Let’s capture it in your weekly notes and make sure it shows up in your review packet.”

Script B – Advocate in calibration

“Beyond feature X, Alex delivered enabling impact: mentored two juniors who now ship independently; authored the alerting runbook used in last month’s outage; facilitated retros that led to a flaky‑test fix reducing CI failures by 30%. These behaviors map to our Senior rubric under ‘Team Multiplication.’ I recommend Strong Meets/Promotion Ready.”

Script C – Reset a hero culture

“We appreciate firefighting, but our bar is sustainable systems. Let’s rotate on‑call, document tribal knowledge, and spread reviews. Being a mentor—not a sole hero—is the next level.”

Script D – Encourage ICs to self‑advocate

“Add a ‘Glue Impact’ section to your weekly notes. Two bullets are enough: problem avoided, teammates unblocked. We’ll forward these into your self‑review and promotion case.”

Common Objections (and Clean Responses)

“Glue work isn’t measurable.”

It’s evidence‑based. Track outcomes: fewer re‑opens, faster cycle time after requirement clarifications, reduced CI failures after test fixes, onboarding time to productivity, fewer coordination blockers.

“We don’t have time for this.”

Glue work is time saved. Thirty minutes clarifying a story or writing a runbook prevents days of rework or outage toil. Bake it into existing rituals; don’t add new meetings.

“People will game the system.”

Use peer corroboration and leader review; highlight useful glue (unblocks and avoids future incidents), not noise. Rotate responsibilities to spread learning and reduce incentives to hoard.

Culture Moves That Make Recognition Stick

• Psychological safety: Make it safe to admit gaps and ask for help (Building Psychological Safety).
• Doc first: Reward writing that saves future brain cycles (Writing Documentation).
• Facilitation excellence: Practice productive retros (The Sprint Retrospective) and brainstorms (Running an Effective Brainstorming Session).
• High‑quality code reviews: Value kindness and clarity (Code Review: Giving Tactful Feedback).
• Mentorship as a promotion path: Build seniority by growing others (Mentoring a Junior Developer).

From Recognition to Career Growth

Map glue work directly to your career rubric. For example:

• Senior IC: Regularly unblocks teammates; improves processes; raises code quality standards.
• Staff/Tech Lead: Multiplies team capacity; drives cross‑team alignment; stewards reliability and docs.
• Manager: Designs systems that distribute glue work; recognizes and rewards it in reviews and promotions.

7‑Day Implementation Plan

1. Day 1: Share this post; align on a working definition of glue work.
2. Day 2: Add a “Glue Wins” line to stand‑ups and sprint docs.
3. Day 3: Pilot a rotating facilitator for stand‑ups/demos (The Daily Stand‑up).
4. Day 4: Start weekly 1:1 glue notes for each report.
5. Day 5: Spotlight a doc, runbook, or test fix in demo (Presenting Your Team’s Work).
6. Day 6: Run a retro that explicitly calls out enabling work (The Sprint Retrospective).
7. Day 7: Practice two scenarios in SoftSkillz.ai and capture one team norm change.

Real Examples of Glue Work to Recognize

• Re‑writing a vague story into testable acceptance criteria (see The Sprint Retrospective for how to raise it constructively)
• Authoring a migration guide that reduces onboarding time
• Standardizing PR templates that surface risky changes early
• Facilitating a post‑mortem that focuses on learning, not blame (The Post‑Mortem Without Blame)
• Coaching a teammate through a tricky review comment (Code Review: Giving Tactful Feedback)

Key Takeaways

• Glue work is a performance multiplier, not “nice to have.”
• Name it, track it lightly, bake it into rituals, distribute fairly, and reward explicitly.
• Use scripts to spotlight impact and advocate in calibration.
• Practice the hard conversations with SoftSkillz.ai to build confidence.