The Dangers of ‘Stepping Back’ From a Role
The long-promised winding-down period for veteran leaders has all but vanished, as AI piles on duties for managers. What firms may be losing out on.
The executive planned to spend the last few years of his career teaching, mentoring, and continuing to run his teams. So he announced to his direct reports that he was “stepping back” and delegating most of his duties to his number two.
Bad idea.
For decades, executives could depend on a cushy—or at least less stressful—final few years on the job. Sure, they would continue oversee teams, but many could “step back” and delegate. Indeed, many leaders were encouraged to do this, as well as to mentor, take professorships, and otherwise give back. But in the age of AI and management cutbacks, this approach is backfiring in a big way, with those who are trying to step back working at full capacity—or being pushed out. “Most firms are riding these employees as much as they can,” says David Vied, global sector leader for medical devices and diagnostics.
The long history of gentle victory laps served many purposes: Stepping aside allowed younger workers to take on bigger roles, with an expert standing by, just in case; meanwhile, deep knowledge transfer took place, preventing decades of accrued insight from simply walking out the door. Those pleasant last years were also a bit of a treat to look forward to, a sort of agreed-upon professional siesta with all professional perks intact. Sure, the work was still there. “The idea was to be a delegator—the work needed to be done as well as by you, but by others,” says Shanda Mints, vice president for AI strategy and transformation.
The sudden surge of AI has flipped that thinking. AI allows people to do more, putting additional responsibilities on employees’ plates—and, in turn, creating a much wider breadth of responsibility for managers. At some firms, companies are laying off employees whose roles have been mostly replaced by AI, leaving behind managers who must figure out who does the human-only tasks that remain (spoiler alert: it’s often the manager). At other firms, managers are facing a heavy workload of managing agents and quality-controlling AI outputs. In these contexts, that plan to step back for a few years seems like a distant dream. “I get tired just thinking about what’s on these managers’ plates,” says Mints.
Interestingly, stepping back is not just exclusive to baby boomers. Many millennials are trying it too, saying management roles have become too overwhelming as firms thin their layers. Indeed, 41% of employees say that managerial layers have been cut at their firm, according to Korn Ferry’s Workforce 2026 report; in the process, direct reports have increased nearly 50% since 2013.
Either way, experts point out that some workers are stepping back by using AI to reduce grunt work. “AI is now doing their spreadsheets for them, making that even easier,” says JP Sniffen, practice leader at the Military Center of Expertise at Korn Ferry. Some managers, left to their own devices, are backing off without necessarily making leadership aware. They maintain loyalty to their team, and don’t necessarily talk to their colleagues about it. “I see a lot of people not putting up out-of-office replies,” says Vied. That way, their colleagues and clients don’t necessarily realize they’ve cut back their presence in the office.
There is, of course, a better way. One firm, for example, offered a program for the last three years of employment in which an employee could become a “Senior Executive Emeritus”: Their bonus criteria was shifted, and they were asked to engage deeply with clients and mentorship. Yet most companies don’t give these years much attention or thought, leaving employees to quietly make their own adjustments. “One word describes the current state of affairs: denial,” says Vied.
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