Many of us wonder how much of our day-to-day work can be done by machines. Will AI even take our jobs? But you know what AI can't do? Glue work! The invisible work that needs to be done to make a team successful, like onboarding a new team member, crafting connections, and getting people to talk with each other, is often overlooked and less promotable than concrete engineering tasks. Yet, none of us would want to work in a team without any glue, even if it is invisible. 

So, let's talk about glue work. How do we do it? And how do we, as glue workers, make sure our efforts get noticed in our next performance review?

Target Audience: Everyone
Prerequisites: None
Level: Basic

Extended Abstract:

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. Eyes closed in a photo? AI will fix it. Writing a test concept for your new project? ChatGPT's got you. Itinerary for that road trip you're going to do with all that time you just freed up? Boom, done! A proposal for a conference talk about glue work? Just kidding.

Many of us wonder how much of our day-to-day work can be done by machines. Will AI even take our jobs? But you know what AI can't do? Glue work! Because empathy cannot be automated.

Glue work, the invisible work that needs to be done to make a team successful, like onboarding a new team member, crafting connections, and getting people to talk with each other, is often overlooked and less promotable than concrete engineering tasks. Yet, none of us would want to work in a team without any glue work, even if we're not even aware of it. 

So, what is glue work? How do we do it? How do we make our efforts visible, and how do we, as glue workers, make sure our efforts get noticed in our next performance review? 

Let's talk about it, without any AI created content. Promise.