New hire automates 100% of his job after one month at the company: 'What am I supposed to do now?'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jan 12, 2026 8:00 AM EST

This programmer may have lacked the experience of some of his coworkers, who had been doing their jobs a specific way for over 25 years. And yet, he was the one who managed to figure out how to automate nearly 100% of his job within one month of employment at the company.

There are a few contributing factors to what happened here. First, it's clear that what this new hire may lack in so-called "professional work experience," he makes up for in natural intelligence and technological capabilities. Sure, the coworkers on his team can boast and brag all they want about how many years of work they have put into the company, but it took just one month for this guy to figure out how to make everyone's jobs exponentially simpler. 

Second, one gets the sense that this company utilizes wildly outdated technology. It's not like this programmer had to invest his own resources to automate his repetitive tasks. Therefore, one cannot argue that the company is trying to save money by forcing this team of programmers to do their jobs manually. It just seems like no one has considered figuring out ways to update the process by which this team fulfills its responsibilities.

Now that the new guy has quickly figured out how to automate his job, he has found himself in a bit of predicament. Should he sit back, relax, and let the system do his job for him? Should he demonstrate what he has done to his coworkers and to upper management? Perhaps he could even seek promotional opportunities through this display of technical competence. As you'll see from several members of this online community, the reactions regarding what this guy should do next are a bit split.

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement

  • Some folks feel that this employee has found himself in the ideal environment to be able to do nothing all day while earning a decent salary. However, others feel that he can leverage his skillset to his advantage, if he even wants more day-to-day responsibility. 

    Still, there's a third, potentially sneakier option here. Now that his days are free, the employee could sit back and let the system he built do his job for him while seeking freelance and other employment possibilities. All that extra time could result in double the income for the same amount of time. Again, all this depends on what this employee wants to do with the luxury of free time on the job. What would you do if you were in his position?

  • "I automated my job. What am I supposed to do now?"

    My main job is to pull data and create summary reports. The whole job is manual, very boring, and all repetitive. I spent a couple of weeks writing some scripts,
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • and now they do about 90% of this work for me. And honestly, if I took another month, I could get them to do the work 100%.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • So now I'm torn: Do I show my manager and try to get a promotion? Or do I keep it a secret and just relax? Or do I share the scripts with my colleagues? What's the right thing to do?
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • The thing is, we already have a full team of developers at the company. And everyone on my team knows that this job is boring and a drag. So the idea that I, the new guy on the team, with almost no programming experience,
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • found a solution for this, is very strange. It makes you wonder why they've been doing it the hard way for 25 years.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • nocninja Never show your boss you can be replaced.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • Nigel_99. This sounds like a dream. If I were you, I'd work on additional skills. Get some certifications. Prepare for future roles. Maybe you can find a way to "expand" your portfolio. But I wouldn't spill the beans.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • longtermcontract In a perfect world you tell your bosses and you get a promotion... but we don't live in a perfect world.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • If you tell them, there's a good chance your job will be gone within the year. If you tell your coworkers, they'll throw you under the bus...
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • the only way two people can keep a secret is if one of them is dd.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • shadowoftheoni... Don't say a word to anyone.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • A man relaxes and puts his feet on his desk in front of the laptop in his office.
    via Vitaly Gariev

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Bixxits . I would not say anything. There's a chance you/your team could get fired after you give the company the 'free work'... corporations look after themselves and
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • they could claw back a lot of money by using your system. Document it for a future role, and learn some new skills or certs.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • DisastrousHelp8... Do not underestimate the power of 'we've always done it this way'. I was once told to stop using fill down to repeat a number down a spreadsheet and enter the same number manually over
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • and over because that's what the procedure said to do. You might present this amazing solution and be told to go back to doing it the hard way.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • SailSkiGolf57. Is there a way to move up the value chain? What do the people who look at the summary reports do with the data?
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • Just say you're interested in learning more about the business - not that you're automating everything.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • Once you are comfortable you can ask about the exception cases. What happens when the data shows a big variance?
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • There are some jobs where reports need to be checked every day to be within tolerance but the specific values don't matter. You see this in processing plants.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • You can also see this in production plants - as long as we're averaging variance each day isn't the critical. However trends can be critical - rates dropping x days in a row indicates a problem.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • We don't automate them because we want people actually looking at the numbers as they prepare the reports.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • As to why the people have done it the hard way for 25 years... they are lots of reasons. - 1. Ego I proposed this solution years ago but my boss at the time shot me down in an embarrassing way.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • 2. Anger I got turned - down for (raise, promotion, vacation) so I'm only going to do what I'm asked.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • 3. Job Protection - I know this could be automated but I'm friends with the people who prepare this report. I know they'll lose their jobs if we automate too much.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • 3a. Management Job Protection - automating these reports would be just the first step in management realizing how much rote work is done by my department. If automation took hold my fiefdom would shrink by 90%.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • 4. Ego again - I built this solution years ago when I was just out of school. It got me noticed and promoted. I don't want anyone improving it more than I did.
    via b*ng_partial3a
  • 5. History - 15 years ago the government found a problem in our automated reporting & I haven't trusted computers since.
    via b*ng_partial3a

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

programming employee automatic bosses overemployed new hire coworkers funny work stories
Scroll Down For The Next Article