When I am having a particularly bad day on the job I tend to grumble about it. On these days, my wife’s usual response is, “It isn’t like your working in a coal mine!” She is right, of course, I am not sweating away hundreds of feet below the earth making my money with physical labor. Still, there are some types of high tech work that are my version of “coal mining.” These are the endlessly repetitive or frustrating tasks that seem to make up the majority of too many workdays. Too much of this type of work and I begin to wonder if I made the right career choice after all.

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