I'm afraid it's becoming the norm in his day and age. Ship the old boys out and bring in the younger ones who we can pay less and won't get as much answering back, or who we can blame when things go tits up! It's a poor situation, some of the tube and fitting firms are going to system and just training the young lads to knock that up on **** money. The old hands are slowly being forced out.
It will come back to bite some people on the arse as not all the young ones have the knowledge to do some of the complex ones!