[vmarshall23]

Isn't that precisely the job?

I had to automate my job when working full time in grad school, otherwise I never would have passed a class.

Since I entered the work force, most jobs have been some version of "automate some task for other people (customers) to exchange for pieces of paper representing effort($)" or "automate some internal task so company spends less $ paying meatware to do things saving effort($)". Rinse, and repeat until either:

a) company makes $$$$! b) company runs out of $

If you manage to automate all-the-things and haven't hit state a) or b) then you start flame wars on internal mailing lists about how the free company snacks suck or whatever. :-)