Early-retirement wannabe

gadgetmind

saver861 wrote: »

I think when you retire you will find that the team, organisation etc will carry on. No one person and all that......

Hmmm. I took today off as I have to be in the office tomorrow (Saturday). Guess where I just spent the last two hours?

rpc

gadgetmind wrote: »

Mrs. GM is the opposite. When she sees work getting me stressed out and down she tells me that "whatever you want to do, we'll make it work" but what I really want to do is sort things out a work! Yes, I could retire now if I wanted, but I've got a team of people who depend on me, and a large company and many customers reliant on what we deliver.

And are none of the younger guys competent to take over? They won't do your job as you define it and as you do it, but that doesn't mean the work can't be done.

Over half of our engineers are over 50 and the number of retirements per year is starting to accelerate. But every time a "key" guys retires, we always survive. And that's with pretty poor succession planning.

One of my team (believed by some in your age demographic to be indispensable) has just been sailing the med for 3 months. I have been met with surprised appreciation that everything is going at least as well without him, if not better. I suspect he is going to come back and hand in his notice for early retirement.

Some of us younger guys are competent too :-)

Marine_life

gadgetmind wrote: »

I've got a team of people who depend on me, and a large company and many customers reliant on what we deliver

Admirable qualities for sure. But as others have said that certainly does not make you indispensable (and I'm sure you don't think that).

I'm taking an alternate path in that I'm living off the halo of the hard work i did a few years ago (but haven't for some time now) and hoping nobody notices.

gadgetmind

rpc wrote: »

And are none of the younger guys competent to take over? They won't do your job as you define it and as you do it, but that doesn't mean the work can't be done.

I'm going to have to rework the team structure and find people the various parts can report to. Ideally this would be a "GM clone" but in reality it's going to have to be a few people as it's a multi-disciplinary team but all the parts come together to form "hybrid" products.

Over half of our engineers are over 50 and the number of retirements per year is starting to accelerate. But every time a "key" guys retires, we always survive. And that's with pretty poor succession planning.

Similar here, with many people having worked for me for 20+ years, and we always survive if people move on.

Some of us younger guys are competent too :-)

Massively so, but I struggle to find people with the technical know how, the desire to manage/lead, and the ability to actually do it.

I know that it needs fixing in 2-3 years but can't see any obvious solutions right now.

gfplux

Lots of interesting comments to read.
I am on holiday in the South of France at the present but can I still use the word Holiday as I have been retired nearly 20 years.
Whatever it's called its very pleasant.

gadgetmind

Marine_life wrote: »

Admirable qualities for sure. But as others have said that certainly does not make you indispensable (and I'm sure you don't think that).

I don't but the shiny new golden handcuffs suggest that others do. When I asked to drop to a 4 day week there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I'm taking an alternate path in that I'm living off the halo of the hard work i did a few years ago (but haven't for some time now) and hoping nobody notices.

I do know what you mean in many ways. My role now is very much "turn the wheel and look to windward" rather than hands on, but I'm very aware of the huge number of real-world problems that wouldn't get solved without my experience and intuition on hand.

And regards "a few years ago", I keep being contacted to give interviews about projects I worked on in the 1980s and early 90s, and I do wish stuff I'd done since then got a mention!

saver861

gadgetmind wrote: »

I do know what you mean in many ways. My role now is very much "turn the wheel and look to windward" rather than hands on, but I'm very aware of the huge number of real-world problems that wouldn't get solved without my experience and intuition on hand.

Why would they not get solved? Maybe the ones that don't get solved are those that are less relevant or not pet projects etc.

If you have trained your team sufficiently then they will be in a position to prosper and grow. Thats when the good work you do a a leader comes into fruition.

I used to take great delight in hearing of how some of my team members had moved on and developed into more senior positions, sometimes higher than my own position.

The reality is, you could fall ill today and be incapable of working ever again. That is actually a worse situation planned retirement. However, in both scenarios, for most companies and organisations, they will continue and grow.

If anything, a leader that has spent too long leading, is more likely to create a stale environment, than one where leadership evolves and changes in greater proportional cycles.

gadgetmind wrote: »

And regards "a few years ago", I keep being contacted to give interviews about projects I worked on in the 1980s and early 90s, and I do wish stuff I'd done since then got a mention!

Maybe there is a hint in there .....

Just saying .....

gadgetmind

saver861 wrote: »

Why would they not get solved? Maybe the ones that don't get solved are those that are less relevant or not pet projects etc.

No, these are usually exceedingly critical issues to do with problems in what's been delivered to customers. By the time I get them, various support teams have exhausted what they can do, and it's been escalated to senior level at customer end, over to CEO/etc. at our end, and then down to me.

I respond in a variety of ways but usually by forming "skunk teams" who all try a different approach to get to the bottom of the issue and to then try and dream up a fix. Other parts of the organisation get involved and there is a lot of collaboration, but we're the troubleshooting experts once it gets to this level.

On a recent one of these, we found what the issue was, but despite a lot of trans-Atlantic brainstorming, no-one could think of any solution that would work. The customer required a conference call where we'd report it was end of the line and the lack of a solution, and after that, someone very senior would need to go to Taiwan to apologise formally and discuss compensation.

The day before the call (which was my job) somewhere between bed and shower my brain started pushing around a different approach and by the end of the shower I was convinced it would work.

It took a long time to convince my guys there was merit in it, but one by one they "got it", and we'd proven it by the end of the day. My call to Taiwan (8am on a day off!) went much better than I'd been expecting.

If you have trained your team sufficiently then they will be in a position to prosper and grow. Thats when the good work you do a a leader comes into fruition.

My teams are great, but they need someone leading them with a multi-disciplinary background, a creative and intuitive approach to problem solving, who's also a very clear thinker and a good team leader.

The reality is, you could fall ill today and be incapable of working ever again. That is actually a worse situation planned retirement. However, in both scenarios, for most companies and organisations, they will continue and grow.

I know and the key man insurance won't really help much.

Maybe there is a hint in there .....

Just saying .....

Yes, it says I'm an old fart whose skills are now decades out of date and who ought to clear off and give others a chance.

I am working on it!

saver861

gadgetmind wrote: »

No, these are usually exceedingly critical issues to do with problems in what's been delivered to customers.

Sure, any customer problem can be considered critical .... something that is considered small at the outset can mushroom .... clearly when it gets to board level then it is significant.

gadgetmind wrote: »

The day before the call (which was my job) somewhere between bed and shower my brain started pushing around a different approach and by the end of the shower I was convinced it would work.

It took a long time to convince my guys there was merit in it, but one by one they "got it", and we'd proven it by the end of the day. My call to Taiwan (8am on a day off!) went much better than I'd been expecting.

That would be providing a creative solution on your part .... and clearly the outcome is then satisfactory for all concerned. So, job well done. Why though, do you think your eventual successor would not be able to instigate a similar solution in similar situation? Your successor will have the benefit of the historical experience you have left, along with his/her own skills, thus actually making him/her a more complete leader than you, if you get my drift.

gadgetmind wrote: »

My teams are great, but they need someone leading them with a multi-disciplinary background, a creative and intuitive approach to problem solving, who's also a very clear thinker and a good team leader.

What you are describing there is every team leader .... those are skills required to be a team leader, and while the disciplines will be entirely different, the skills concepts are virtually identical.

gadgetmind wrote: »

Yes, it says I'm an old fart whose skills are now decades out of date and who ought to clear off and give others a chance.

Every dog has it's day .... I think for many if they look at their contribution to their organisation it would appear as a bell graph ... in the beginning that contribution builds to a peak ... towards the end its likely that contribution starts to de-escalate.


From what you say you got everything in place financially to retire. You can convince yourself you are staying for the 'good of the company' but I would beg to differ.

I've almost two years retirement as we speak and do not regret it in the slightest. I took the opportunity when it came, though being aware I was really too young to fully retire and thus some concern about how I would utilise my time.

My time is utilised, and I do some freelancing to keep the brain occupied more so than for any financial reasons.

If you continue to work and get to the point I am at now, my bet is you will berate yourself for not doing it sooner.


I tidied my desk completely before leaving such that whatever direction, restructure or strategies were taken after I left, none would have been impeded by actual leaving.

gadgetmind

saver861 wrote: »

clearly when it gets to board level then it is significant.

All of our customers are paying millions of $ on projects that cost them 10s to 100s of millions. One teeny problem can cause major issues, and if the product is already shipping to dozens of customers, who have 100s of products available on Amazon ...

After solving that one problem, our CEO thanked me personally, said I'd saved the company's bacon, and earned my year's salary while in the shower. (Someone else told him the shower bit!)

Why though, do you think your eventual successor would not be able to instigate a similar solution in similar situation? Your successor will have the benefit of the historical experience you have left, along with his/her own skills, thus actually making him/her a more complete leader than you, if you get my drift.

I do get your drift, but I have no understanding of how I do this part of what I do and neither does anyone else. My wife says I'm "special", which I think is a good thing.

Most people understand computers at a certain level, and specialise in either hardware or software. I understand them at every level, am happy to tackle both s/w and h/w (and more besides), have been hunting deep and complex issues for decades, and am happy to either stand back and let the team (with guidance) tackle things or (when required) roll my sleeves up.

What you are describing there is every team leader .... those are skills required to be a team leader, and while the disciplines will be entirely different, the skills concepts are virtually identical.

I agree, and I have good leads in every team, but they need someone to pull them together. I haven't found that someone internally and may need to recruit.

towards the end its likely that contribution starts to de-escalate.

I'm sure that I'm "over the hump".

You can convince yourself you are staying for the 'good of the company' but I would beg to differ.

I'm sure you're right, but my plans involve me being there until 2018 and to get all the gold from my handcuffs I need to be there until 2019. I'm probably going to settle for 2/3rds of the gold.