If a certain router started timing out, I had to go reboot it. I placed it on a networked power switch so if the router timed out 5 times in a row, the power switch bounced, rebooting it.
I had to go collect temperatures from the outside thermometers around the small 3 building campus. Replaced those with net thermometers with APIs that could be hit to get a reading.
Every 30 minutes we had to record information from some netsend ping and check some jobs. I had to first engineer a solution to get the net send messaging working on Win7. Then I had to extract the information from it, transform it into a usable data structure and use a perl script to load that into our mysql journal DB.
There were data management tasks that required clicking precise locations in an application. I used tools to make sure that the window opened in the same place then I learned how to accomplish precise cursor location and manipulation with either batch or wscript, depending on the needs at the time. Then I nailed down a precise timing for each action in the tasks and virtualized the entire setup into a VM.
Then I used the host machine to refactor our Java 5 application to Java 7 with considerations for Java 8.
But that wasn't "my job" and when the owner died and his son inherited the business he hired his buddy to manage me out. When his buddy found out that I'd "automated my entire job", I lost my job. (Never mind the fact that the job had become refactoring Java code, writing blog posts for the website, and maintaining said website.)
I was getting paid $9/hr.
You won't ever catch me automating anything anymore.