To avoid the risk of seeming to be prescriptive, I'll just say that I had a reasonably sound resume with mostly middle management experience in litigation, insurance, telephone technology, and operations. (Those fields seem unrelated even to me when summarized, but there was a logical progression.)

I am now working my dream job, which is solidly blue collar. It pays well enough, I still use my mind, and it is mostly not dull or repetitive. (I've worked a few of those, too, both white and blue collar.)

There are a lot more of those kinds of blue collar jobs than many middle management types realize. Most of my old coworkers are long gone from my social circle, but in retrospect, that always happened when I went from one company to the next anyway.