A good manager will get you what you need (computers, the right chair, a good desk, etc.) An engineer (or admin, etc.) who has everything required is a powerful thing.
A good manager will act as an umbrella and abstraction layer protecting you from metaphorical objects falling from above and give you time and space to work without interruption. It's hard to overstate what this can do for both your work and mental health.
A good manager will be looking out for your interests /as well as/ their own. That means compensation, vacations, work rules, etc. Some companies make this impossible, but where it is possible it is amazingly helpful.
A good manager will make sure you stay focused, provide useful feedback (both positive and negative), and make sure you are staying on target without getting in your way or hurting your morale.
A bad manager, of course, can ruin your day, week, and possibly year.
> "act as an umbrella", really means protect you from other managers
Eh, not only. Other non-management employees can mess up your time quite effectively, as can people you're working with outside your company (clients, vendors). Sure you can shield yourself from it if you try... or you could exploit division of labour and get someone to do it for you so you can concentrate on what you do best.
Experienced well-rounded employees can mostly take care of themselves (and know when to say "no"). It's the new-hires and rough-around-the-edges people that require more hand holding and can benefit more greatly from a manager.
Yes, they can. But that distracts us from our core job: writing code.
A good manager can get others off your back much quicker and shield you from the political fallout that can occur - essentially being the bad guy for you.
Yeah. There are numerous quotes on differentials in programmer productivity being an order of magnitude or more between a bad one and a good one, but the reality is — at least in software — it often seems the same holds true for managers, except they can sink or save their whole sub-tree.
A good manager is a powerful thing, especially a good manager who knows his limits, but too often (especially in continental Europe) "management" seems to be a "reward and natural evolution", to the exclusion of other evolutionary paths and hinging as much (if not more) on the ability to brown-nose and play politics as management skills.
A good manager will act as an umbrella and abstraction layer protecting you from metaphorical objects falling from above and give you time and space to work without interruption. It's hard to overstate what this can do for both your work and mental health.
A good manager will be looking out for your interests /as well as/ their own. That means compensation, vacations, work rules, etc. Some companies make this impossible, but where it is possible it is amazingly helpful.
A good manager will make sure you stay focused, provide useful feedback (both positive and negative), and make sure you are staying on target without getting in your way or hurting your morale.
A bad manager, of course, can ruin your day, week, and possibly year.