Assembly manager Paul Raab celebrated his 60th company anniversary at Lochbühler. (Quelle: Lochbühler)

Loyalty – also in retirement

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"Senior experts,” semi-retirement, flexible retirement transition, long-term accounts – the initiatives of employers in the era of a shortage of experts for retaining know-how in companies are becoming more diverse. The well-established company Lochbühler has been practising such model for years – to the benefit of the company, the employees and above all the customers.

In October assembly manager Paul Raab celebrated his 60th company anniversary. He began his apprenticeship as mechanical fitter when he was 14 and became a master fitter in the 1970s. He became the right hand of the current head of the company thanks to his great technical expertise, exemplary reliability and extraordinary commitment. He also quickly acquired an excellent reputation among customers, because he always found a way of meeting special requests or observing apparently unachievable deadlines.

Still available with help and advice

No wonder then that in 2007 no one wanted to let him retire – nor was it anything he could imagine. Consequently, his working time was reduced by one weekday three years before his retirement was to begin. In return, he continued to work for two days a week after his retirement.

As a result, the now 74-year old is still available today to the management, his colleagues and customers with help and advice. "A great transition. The work keeps me young and it’s nice to be able to continue to make a contribution,” Raab said in justification of his earlier decision.

Since then he has been concentrating on particularly complicated projects and passing on his experience to young fitters. Paul Raab was also decisively involved in the elaborate renovation of the protected water tower monument in Mannheim-Seckenheim and the establishment of the local lift museum. He occasionally guides visitor groups through the museum too. On these occasions he vividly describes the development of lift technology and knows many anecdotes from company and regional history.

www.lochbuehler.de

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