On the other hand... in a lot of fields, doing the drudgery is the perfect thing for apprentices and new hires to do. You can learn a lot of stuff from grinding on the boring tasks that need doing but nobody wants to do. And while doing this you make contacts, learn other processes, and end up being in the right place at the right time when a better gig in the company opens up.

I guess, stuff that is getting automated, should become a part of the education curriculum. That way, the hire will have the relevant know how, and start doing useful work on joining.

Yes. I mostly believe this as well. I have little or no guilt about it. Especially since the person was not yet hired. But when I think about stuff like this happening at scale across tens of thousands of small private companies it starts to add up to a lot of missing entry level jobs.

I will keep automating away the drudgery in part because it is inevitable and I might as well be someone who profits from the master trend rather than be trampled by the trend.