Your statement is the reason a lot of companies carry so much technical debt. People think that if they build themselves into a process they can't be replaced, which is completely false. I've been in big companies and I've been in small companies, and no matter how much I have automated, I have never run out of things to do.

Think of it from a management standpoint. Who would you rather have on your team? The DBA who takes 3 hours to manually refresh a DEV database, or a DBA who automates it so developers can restore their own DEV system? I know my choice.

Your value to your company is finding innovative ways to better serve your customers.

John Sansom, I thought this article looked familiar. I agree 100%. Glad they re-posted it.