When Great Work Isn’t Enough - Issue 260
How invisible contributions undermine career growth (and what to do about It)
Welcome to my Data Analytics Journal, where I write about data science and analytics. This month, paid subscribers learned about:
From Analytics to Data Science: Building Forecasts - A step-by-step guide to using ARIMA and Prophet to forecast events, transactions, and customer growth.
A Refresher on A/B Testing - A curated list of free tutorials and materials to help you get started with experimentation. If you follow it in a phased approach, you’ll be well-equipped to work with A/B tests.
How to Set Up Analytics for Web and Mobile Products - How to set up analytics that would scale with your product - a practical guide for product analysts.
This publication is dedicated to every analyst who has struggled to get promoted - and especially to every woman reading my newsletter: please take a moment to read this.
For many years, I’ve advocated that the quality of your work should be the primary driver of promotion and career growth. While that remains true, there’s another, less-discussed dimension to career growth.
There is “promotable” work and “less-promotable” work. These types of work are rarely distributed equally across teams. Some team members are assigned projects with higher visibility and impact, while others are left to take on less-promotable work. More often than not, that burden falls on women and members of underrepresented groups. And that rarely has to do with skills or experience.
Let’s talk about less-promotable work - also known as glue work. It’s based on the brilliant talk Being Glue authored by Tanya Reilly. While Tanya’s message is directed at engineers (she’s also the author of several excellent guides on engineering career paths), her learnings are highly relevant for analysts as well.
Today, I’m taking a break from forecasts, SQL, and dashboards to share Tanya’s message. I initially planned to recap her talk and share a few of my examples from the analytics world, but honestly, she covered the topic so well that I’ve decided to highlight her key takeaways instead.
I encourage everyone to read Being Glue.
What is Glue Work?
Glue work refers to the activities that keep teams functioning smoothly. This includes coordination, unblocking teammates, code review, mentoring, onboarding, documentation, ensuring alignment, and communicating across functions.
It's the work that makes any project successful. It is essentially technical leadership, but is often not perceived as “technical” by “traditional standards” and is frequently undervalued, especially when it comes to promotions and recognition.
Glue work is not distributed equally
Studies show women volunteer for non-promotable tasks 48% more often, and managers assign such tasks to women 44% more frequently. This is fucked up.
In mixed-gender groups, men delay volunteering, assuming women will step up.
Why is it risky to take on glue work
1. It’s not “promotable”
If unmanaged, it’s career-limiting. Even though code reviews and documentation are high-impact contributions, they are seen as either “not technical enough” or low-output work.
Performance reviews may praise glue work, but promotion decisions often focus on visible, quantifiable output like completed analyses, number of reports, dashboards, number of completed A/B test analyses, successful forecasts delivered, etc.
Managers obviously benefit from glue work getting done, but may often fail to communicate that it's not viewed as promotable.
2. It slows down your learning
Most of our learning happens on the job. What you spend time on is what you get better at. If you stop coding for long, others will assume your technical skills are gone, even if they aren’t.
If you want a promotion, be strategic
If you’re enjoying glue work - great! But don’t let your contribution go unseen or unrewarded:
Track your work and quantify your impact. Frame and document glue work impact - create artifacts like meeting notes, proposals, emails.
Make it visible - Tell your story. Learn visibly.
Set boundaries for the glue work. Balance your time. Make sure you have “quantifiable” technical work (code, analyses, designs, systems) to meet promo expectations. Have clear conversations with your manager: “Will I get promoted?” “What do I need to show?”
If glue isn’t promotable in your org, pause glue and focus on quantifiable contributions.
If you are a manager, you have a responsibility
Track and deliberately distribute glue work. Assign non-promotable tasks instead of relying on volunteers.
Don’t let glue people carry the burden alone - it’s harmful and unsustainable.
Encourage everyone (especially “non-glue” people) to improve communication and leadership skills.
Soft skills and glue work are not non-technical. When assessing “technical contribution,” include impact, judgment, and critical thinking, not just output.
And if you manage glue people, protect them. Recognize their impact, advocate for their growth, and ensure they’re not left behind in promotion tracks built only for code output.
Read more - Being Glue.
This is such an important topic, and something I've seen play out in so many different ways over the years. The concept of 'glue work' really hits home. It's those essential tasks that keep everything running smoothly, but often get overlooked when it comes to recognition and promotions.
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that just doing great work is enough, but you're spot on - there's a whole other dimension to career growth. It's about understanding the dynamics within teams and making sure that everyone has the opportunity to shine. As a leader, it's crucial to be aware of how work is distributed and to actively ensure that these 'glue' responsibilities are shared fairly and valued appropriately.
Really appreciate you bringing this to light.