To have pretty much automated 90% of my job and pretend I'm very busy?

[IroningBoardAgainstTheWall]

So, I run a database and predecessor didn't seem to actually understand databases and what they can do so was working 50+hrs and not achieving very much. We'll call him Phil.
I took over and was warned how much work Phil did, he was very busy and he was actually in a retainer in case I needed his help or had any queries over certain tasks. I work in education and there's weekly, half termly, termly and annual tasks, quite cyclic and not difficult.

Within a month I'd automated the daily, weekly and monthly reports, added more useful ones and sent them out. During my first academic year, I'd introduced new systems to automate tasks for others, developed new ways of capturing and reporting data, linked systems to the main MIS to automate account creation and syncing etc

So basically I have very little to do anymore. I do ask for stuff to do, but there's nothing much really. I look for stuff to do but again, there's not much.Occasionally I'll get feature requests or specific reports.

But honestly I do about 4-6 hours of work a week...max, and that includes stuff that isn't really my job, like fixing printers and laptops and stuff.

Should I confess?

Do you wfh op?

You may have said, mn making it harder to view just your posts

Of course not! Well done you! With ai I've managed to automate my academic job too!

Confess what? That you found a better way to do your job? But you found that way, not them. You're not doing anything wrong, nothing to confess!

Spend the time self-training for the next step in your career. This job is convenient for now, but you could probably earn tens of thousands more when you are ready to go for it.
How is your DAX code? Power Query M code? MS SSMS? Python? Tableau?
R Code? SQL? etc. etc. Do some research - do you want to go more into data engineering, data science, or into data analysis and business analysis?

Have you got a personal website with a portfolio of projects you have completed? If not, do that next.

As there should be if people are underemployed

@IroningBoardAgainstTheWall I expect autonomy at work, like you, I've seen the shortcoming of my many predecessors who couldn't see the wood for the trees.
Having spent some months, wasting my time on 'pointless' work, yesterday I unveiled how I had woven an array of disparate data into a coherent tapestry, vindicating the efforts of my team and enabling a request for a 25% increase in funding.
The response was a demand to know when the spend to the end of March will be known (spoiler alert, not in February) and to have it pointed out that my figures do actually add up - because someone got out their calculator and checked.

Write a novel, enjoy the coming of Spring, revisit the music of your teenage years and enjoy the money.

Unbelievable

Believe me, it's true. Today, I switched energy providers, looked up some holidays, read a few chapters or a book, did some puzzles in the times, tweaked a power bi report (30 minutes), , fixed a laptop that had a display issue, and then doom scrolled for about 3 hours.

My friend who is 60 took six months planned leave to have an extended holiday in Australia as her only child was giving birth there last year.
She works with a multinational in a client management position for a decade.

She gave 8 months notice and the company made arrangements for her job to be covered and trained up.

Within a week the cover person said it would need a second person, which she was given. Then it still wasn't enough, a third person was required for the workload.

She returned and her two clients had been complaining non stop that they were not going to renew their multi million contract unless she returned.

My friend had a meeting with her employers and told them that she is not interested in working full-time so will be looking elsewhere for work less taxiing, some contracting work for their competition that have approached her several times to move.

They have agreed to a 3 day week, on the same pay, and she is now mostly WFH.

This has been going on since September successfully.
She finds the job easily completed in 3 days.
Some people are just really good at what they do.
She has just booked Australia again and this time will work remotely as the alternative for her client was less palatable.

I can well believe the OP.
Years of experience and being excellent at what you do can mean that you simplify processes so that nothing is a problem.

Please can you share which resources you self taught with. I read your other post about your use of Power automate, Reporting Services, Power BI and API.

I know the processes I currently do could be vastly improved however I just don’t have knowledge of these newer softwares. I’m willing to learn but it’s cutting through the vast amount of info to pick the right training and software for what I need.

You need to learn a little bit of SQL first.

And also understanding the data.

A s ideally the table structure and how relational databases work :)

Thanks! I’ve saved a lot of hours with implementing new softwares and processes however there’s just some stuff I know can be way more efficient and automated. I can see that a lot of jobs in my role are now asking for PowerBI so I really need to grasp it to get ahead

I shall start with SQL and go from there - thanks