I'm familiar with using the causative from to request something for oneself, as in "could you let me do this, please" (やらせていただけませんか). However, I've come across this sentence:
17時までにこの仕事を終わらせてください。
This seems to me to say "please finish the work", but with the causative form it would be something like "make it be finished", which doesn't make sense.
So, why is the causative form of 終わる used? Is it the causative form in the first place or it's something else?
Thank you very much.