I just want to add that many desk jobs do the equivalent of writing boilerplate code. Copying from calendar A to calendar B is a real 70k/yr job I’ve seen. And

I just want to add that many desk jobs do the equivalent of writing boilerplate code. Copying from calendar A to calendar B is a real 70k/yr job I’ve seen. And from what I can tell, being a human shell script + representing that function (responsible face and name) characterizes lower tier white collar jobs. So the mere existence of “worthless” churn in your job isn’t evidence that you aren’t solving business problems that are worthy of pay. To put it another way. Most jobs exist to make a problem go away for an executive. I understand you are also getting at the ethos of good engineering and encouraging this person to take pride in their work. > you've unwittingly settled into a role as an technician getting paid highly because of ephemeral demand bubble rather than the valuable engineer you might imagine yourself to be. I have not seen this put so succinctly and this cannot be repeated enough.