How to stop Automator / other task running in background
Bring up Spotlight (press command-space) and type in folder action setup and then press Enter when it comes up.

You can then disable/delete/etc the folder action on the target folder.

You can also, in Finder, right-click (control-click) on the target folder that has the folder action assigned to it as then select Folder Action Setup... in the Services section of the context menu.