This is the kind of automation I believe in: Bottom-up, with no permission asked and no goal but to hold down one thriving wage with minimal effort and maximum free time. My only critique is that they felt the need to brag in public. You teach this shit in secret so the bosses never twig.
I used to shoot fireworks professionally as a side gig, and the guy running the show was essentially working full time, but he had another full time job and i eventually asked him how the hell he did it.
It was this same story. He automated his shit, set up catches and only he would recwicer the alerts so he had time to be where he needed to be when they finally called him to fix it
Yeah, but I do shut up about it. Doesn't matter what we internet folk think is common knowledge. The majority of bosses only have a faint idea of what is going on. And we should keep it this way.
This is how I keep my boss happy. By keeping him in the dark ❤
From personal experience, sysadmin/engineer work. Unfortunately some places use sysadmin to refer to high level tech support, but I'm talking about the people who keep back end infrastructure running. If the back end systems are kept working and you have a project that is simultaneously technical enough and sounds important enough, people will often just leave you to it.
There is a lot of downtime. I'm paid for my knowledge and ability to solve complex problems quickly when they arise, not to be cranking out manual work 40 hours a week. However, there are absolutely times where I've got to full focus in, full hours. They just are the exception rather than the norm.
The biggest tool for this is learning the automation tools and systems your company uses. More you can automate, the more actions you can take in a shorter time, giving you more down time. This also increases opportunities to break shit exponentially, so you're trading knowledge, risk (especially while you learn), and up front time for time later.