For a long time, tech culture has focused too narrowly on technical skills; this has resulted in a tech community that too often puts companies and code over people. Greater Than Code is a podcast that invites the voices of people who are not heard from enough in tech: women, people of color, trans and/or queer folks, to talk about the human side of software development and technology. Greater Than Code is providing a vital platform for these conversations, and developing new ideas of what it means to be a technologist beyond just the code. Featuring an ongoing panel of racially and gender diverse tech panelists, the majority of podcast guests so far have been women in tech! We’ve covered topics including imposter syndrome, mental illness, sexuality, unconscious bias and social justice. We also have a major focus on skill sets that tech too often devalues, like team-building, hiring, community organizing, mentorship and empathy. Each episode also includes a transcript. We have an active Slack community that members can join by pledging as little as $1 per month via Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode)
162: Glue Work with Denise Yu
00:58 - Denise’s Superpower: She is a classically trained musician and is good at transcribing music in her head.
03:30 - Glue Work
- Tanya Reilly
- Doing Tasks That Are Adjacent to Coding
- Scheduling
- Making Sure Meetings Have Agendas
- Who Tends to do Glue Work
- Emotional Labor
13:07 - What Denise Has Done to Improve the Glue Work Situation
- Having the Terminology Helps A Lot
17:31 - How to Address Changing the Structure of Glue Work
- Thinking Globally and Acting Locally
- Burnout
- Writing More Feedback Than Managers Expect
- Writing Feedback About Glue Work
- Virginia Satir
31:40 - Offboarding Yourself
37:10 - Release Engineering
39:45 - Being a Product Manager
46:39 - Being Back in the Development Role
- Working With Teams
Reflections:
John: The distinction between glue work that is just work that you are doing and glue work that you are enjoying and getting satisfaction out of. See what he can do to add glue work tasks into evaluations and part of everyone’s job.
Rein: Burnout isn’t just working long hours. Burnout becomes a real danger when those things combine with acute alienation.
Jacob: If product managers tried to be more transparent with their day to day tasks, and trying to listen more himself to what the PMs are saying.
Denise: Thinking globally but solving locally. Always be offboarding yourself.
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Special Guest: Denise Yu.