Has anyone here down-shifted her career at 50?

[Anonymous]

Early 50s. I've been working hard my whole life. I have a C-level position at a small company where I've been for many years and I make a good living. I'm a strong performer, and the company has done well, even through the pandemic. Despite that, I feel like my weeks are full of chaos and crisis. Managing people and conflict is just exhausting. I don't know whether my job has become more stressful or if I'm losing my ability to manage my stress but for the past year or so, I've felt miserably unhappy in my job. I originally attributed that to menopause and mental health issues so sought therapy. I find it helpful overall but it hasn't really reduced my work angst.

I've started looking for a new job but am nervous about moving from the devil I know to a new environment that might be even more stressful. I sometimes think how nice it would be to take on an easier job - one without management responsibility. Financially we could swing a drop in my pay, but then I worry I might regret it and/or just continue to be stressed and just make less money. This also feels like giving up to me. But I'm just so tired of feeling like there's an elephant standing on my chest. My youngest started college this year, so I should be ready/able to take on more. But I'm not. I really just want to retire which I can't afford to fully do.

Has anyone intentionally moved to a lower level job in search of peace/happiness? Did it work out well?

Sorry for the long post. And, yes, I know this is a first world problem.

[Anonymous]

Have you considered retirement and volunteering?

[Anonymous]

I hear you but if this is a new type of feeling for you it may be hormonal or vitamin deficiency.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been the same for a couple of years. Mid-management but two kids and younger. I’m now 2 years away from retirement. I would recommend starting with figuring out exactly what it would take to retire and then think about this. I definitely decided in favor of the devil I know. But was three years out from potential retirement at that point. If you looked at the financials and you are 4-8 years out I would start looking for a serious downshift. Trying to “care less” and letting some things slide at work has helped about 30%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear you but if this is a new type of feeling for you it may be hormonal or vitamin deficiency.

Lol

Different poster.

I’m pushing 50 and I’m a C suite manager as well. Post-covid, the job has become difficult because people have become difficult. I spend my day dealing with people who no longer want to come to the office (they only need to come in once or twice a week to meet with and manage their teams/projects, including onboarding and training new people). They are now easily overwhelmed. Several have disclosed mental health issues. Many have lost soft skills and create drama with coworkers or entire departments.

It’s exhausting.

If I could find something else to do at 70% of my salary I’d take it. But I have kids who are going off to college in the next handful of years, so I can’t retire or decrease my salary too much.

I wish everyone would just chill out, be professional, and do their job.

[Anonymous]

I can completely see wanting a lower stress job in your situation. It doesn’t mean you’re a slacker or ready to retire.

It’s probably hard for someone like you who I’m guessing is hard on yourself and driven enough to become ceo to then downshift a bit.

Life is short, you should make yourself happy and not question wanting to enjoy it while it’s fleeting.

I would 1) see if you can “quiet quit” and just do less in your current role, and 2) look for another role where you aren’t in the same situation, lead of a small organization. Sounds exhausting to me and I’m an executive at a fortune 200 company and also 50 with grown kids.

[Anonymous]

I have noticed in health care that a lot of the staff clinicians are younger or older, and then the leadership is in their upper 30s/40s. It's very common in our field to return to just seeing patients after realizing how much stress it is being in charge!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear you but if this is a new type of feeling for you it may be hormonal or vitamin deficiency.

Lol

Different poster.

I’m pushing 50 and I’m a C suite manager as well. Post-covid, the job has become difficult because people have become difficult. I spend my day dealing with people who no longer want to come to the office (they only need to come in once or twice a week to meet with and manage their teams/projects, including onboarding and training new people). They are now easily overwhelmed. Several have disclosed mental health issues. Many have lost soft skills and create drama with coworkers or entire departments.

It’s exhausting.

If I could find something else to do at 70% of my salary I’d take it. But I have kids who are going off to college in the next handful of years, so I can’t retire or decrease my salary too much.

I wish everyone would just chill out, be professional, and do their job.

Amen to that.

[Anonymous]

Here’s the thing. Most industries have bad ageism, but the only roles that are exempt from ageism tend to be executive level. So if you drop down a few levels or become an IC — are you ready to be laid off and retire at 55?

[Anonymous]

Nope, I need the money to help with college tuition. No way I'm down shifting now.

[Anonymous]

I am not able to downshift financially. No way would I have volunteered to downshift. It was forced on me.

[Anonymous]

There's ageism at every rank. Boards of directors don't care if they keep a 55-year-old executive or Sr. VP or replace one with a 42-year-old.

Women will start experiencing ageism at age 40.

[Anonymous]

I downshifted to an IC role at 49. A downside is that people treat you like you aren't that smart if you aren't managing people at that age. If your ego can withstand that go for that less demanding position. Peace of mind is more important to me than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear you but if this is a new type of feeling for you it may be hormonal or vitamin deficiency.

Lol

Different poster.

I’m pushing 50 and I’m a C suite manager as well. Post-covid, the job has become difficult because people have become difficult. I spend my day dealing with people who no longer want to come to the office (they only need to come in once or twice a week to meet with and manage their teams/projects, including onboarding and training new people). They are now easily overwhelmed. Several have disclosed mental health issues. Many have lost soft skills and create drama with coworkers or entire departments.

It’s exhausting.

If I could find something else to do at 70% of my salary I’d take it. But I have kids who are going off to college in the next handful of years, so I can’t retire or decrease my salary too much.

I wish everyone would just chill out, be professional, and do their job.

Amen to that.

Another Amen. I am truly baffled by the people I manage who could competently do their job pre-Covid and now spend most of their time creating drama in order to not have to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear you but if this is a new type of feeling for you it may be hormonal or vitamin deficiency.

Lol

Different poster.

I’m pushing 50 and I’m a C suite manager as well. Post-covid, the job has become difficult because people have become difficult. I spend my day dealing with people who no longer want to come to the office (they only need to come in once or twice a week to meet with and manage their teams/projects, including onboarding and training new people). They are now easily overwhelmed. Several have disclosed mental health issues. Many have lost soft skills and create drama with coworkers or entire departments.

It’s exhausting.

If I could find something else to do at 70% of my salary I’d take it. But I have kids who are going off to college in the next handful of years, so I can’t retire or decrease my salary too much.

I wish everyone would just chill out, be professional, and do their job.

Amen to that.

Another Amen. I am truly baffled by the people I manage who could competently do their job pre-Covid and now spend most of their time creating drama in order to not have to work.

Have some empathy. They are also doing a 2nd full time job as well.