Comment by game_the0ry

This is my first time hearing the term "glue people" but they sound like a subset of "personality hires." [1] I get why IC technical types would have resentment towards them. I do too.

IMO experience, the defining attribute of these people is that they give emotional comfort to insecure management. Having an org cheerleader around when times are difficult will help make a CEO feel warm and fuzzy inside and help to drown out the discontent.

The good ones are not entirely useless, sometimes they can facilitate org progress in ways others are unwilling or not capable of doing. But at worst, they can create more inefficiency then they solve.

The true mark of a person's value to an org is - in their absence, do things get better or worse? I have seen highly paid "glue people" leave and things actually get easier and better - those people are often forgotten quickly too.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_hire