Been seeing all the news about Malaysia's economy growing, attracting FDI, and creating "high-value" jobs. But then I look at my own day-to-day, and I have to wonder, is this true?

I see so many of my friends and colleagues in professional roles with those canggih-canggih titles – Analysts, Specialists, Executives, and bla bla bla.

But honestly, when we talk about our actual work, a common theme emerges: massive amount of our time is spent on manual work.

Manually copy-pasting everything, line by line, into our internal systems.

Double-checking everything by eye, just hoping there is no typo.

Sending the same follow-up emails over and over.

I have talked with my friends in similar roles and it is the same story, sometimes even worse in the SMEs.

So it got me thinking... maybe this is why many of us feel stuck at the lower chain of the job. We, Malaysian seen as "efficient" because our labor is cheaper, not because our processes are actually smart. Our value is measured by how fast we can do the manual work, not how much we can improve the process.

I am genuinely trying to figure out if I am just in my "comfort zone" surrounded by these kinds of jobs, or if this is a really common thing for professionals in Malaysia.

So, I wanted to ask everyone here:

How much of your job is actually 'thinking' work that requires your brain vs just manual, copy-paste grunt work that makes you feel like a robot?

If this is a common thing, why do you think it's still like this? Is it just the classic culture of 'it's always been this way'? Are the bosses kedekut to pay for better software? Or do they just not know how much time this stuff really takes up?

And for those who have managed to escape this cycle, I really want to know: What is your 'life hack'? What software, crazy Excel macro, or new process did you find that actually worked? And the million-dollar question: how did you convince your boss to actually approve it?

Keen to hear your thoughts. Is it just me being siok sendiri here, or is this a shared frustration for many of us?  Would be great to hear from all angles too. If you are a decision maker or tauke, what are the real challenges in changing these old processes?

Data entry, data validation, data cleanup, and follow-up emails are all done by Copilot? Really? Mind sharing more? I am really interested to know about this.