[stratigos]

"basically answering emails" is usually also done within a context of subject matter expertise and long term career experience. This is akin to saying "programmers just bang on a keyboard and clock out at the end of the day, easy!"

[bluefirebrand]

When you're above a certain level you are not the subject matter expert anymore, you hire subject matter experts and have them give you options.

Maybe this isn't true in companies you've worked for, but it's still pretty common for "engineering manager" to be a title held by an MBA with no engineering knowledge.

[pierat]

I had a job where the systems engineering team was lead by a person who had an MBA, and didn't even know what an IP address was. And they were making customer decisions like "This deployment MUST happen tonight no matter what".

I plainly said "I will do my best to do the deployments, but if deployment scripts fail, I will NOT risk customer data to complete this task".

The CTO overheard this dictate by our manager. The CTO backed me 100%. And, she was the previous syseng for our dept, and worked up the ranks from helpdesk->syseng->cto. Fucking sharp lady.

[Our_Benefactors]

I personally have never had a manager who did not at one time or another demonstrate detailed and outside technical knowledge. Maybe I am an extremely lucky outlier but I’ve yet to encounter the mythical MBA Engineering manager. Maybe things have changed over time?

[confidantlake]

I didn't either until I did. I think it is more common outside of "tech" companies.