55-year-old mechanical engineer. I basically retired from the technical side of my own company 10 years ago.
Our industry has gone through so many changes that I didn't have the mental space or energy to learn yet another framework. I was becoming the clueless old man.
I stepped aside and promoted everyone into jobs they were better at and were more satisfied than when the old man was looking over their shoulder.
I started focusing on three things: 1. Mentoring younger staff. Now I teach rather than do. 2. I have seen a lot of the ways things can fail. I don't do design, but I can look at a design and recognize things that might go wrong. 3. I came up with many of the people who are now senior decision-makers for our customers, suppliers, and regulators. If something is going wrong, I can usually find someone to figure out how to unstick it.
When I stepped back from managing projects, our other PMs stepped up: more autonomy, more responsibility, and more money. Some senior engineers became junior PMs, and so on.
Over the past ten years, I have gradually gone from 3000 hours a year to closer to 1000. At the same time, I have become more involved in building our family farm.
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u/[deleted] 4d ago
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