[radicalbyte]

Same here - my first real job involved putting reports together by collecting/combining data from various sources.

Spent the first month doing it be hand, second month I pulled an all-nighter and automated the easy 80%. The last 20% of automation involved switching from Excel to a website - that took a couple of years to make happen because I needed to convince people to make the change.

I spent the time I received improving my skills and automating other things, as well as helping colleges with work which did require manual intervention.

[VBprogrammer]

If you add socially normalised work from home to any of these stories the opportunity to do the very little becomes obvious. When we all had to come into the office for 8 hours a day, even if you managed to automate most of your work you still had to show up and sit at your desk.