I work in the public sector, part of what we do is to automate tasks. No one gets fired by this directly, but over time positions disappear. When people retire, no one gets rehired and stuff like that.

Sometimes it makes sense, some tasks shouldn’t be done manually. But sometimes you automate something that was better for both the employees and citizens/patients the inefficient way, because it’s cheaper. After a long time doing this, the thing that gets me the most is how I used to buy all the corporate bullshit about how things like citizen/patient comfort, corporation, employee happiness mattered more than money, because it never did when it came down to it.

Still there are perks to the job, you get to genuinely improve people’s lives, sometimes even build things that save lives, but the automation thing, meh.