IMHO a manager is to a good engineer what a tennis coach is to a tennis player. The coach cannot play tennis any better than the player, but he can help him, k

IMHO a manager is to a good engineer what a tennis coach is to a tennis player. The coach cannot play tennis any better than the player, but he can help him, keep him practicing, have him not miss any tournaments, manage his time, etc. The coach trusts the player that he knows how to play tennis and player trusts his coach that he keep his back free of distractions. I think the main task of a manager is to enable the engineer to do his/her work. Presence-obsession seems counter productive and this manager does not seems to understand how to manage smart people. Lastly it has been shown, that the human brain can concentrate for about 6h on every sleep-wake cycle, everything else is subconscious drifting and distracting. A 40h or more mandate is counter productive. So a candid discussion with the manager making these points and explaining the mutual benefit would be in order. If that does not work one has three choices: (1) accept it (2) escalate up (3) leave. Which of these is appropriate depends on the specific circumstances.