No person should need an engineering manager, but nearly every single team deserves one.
It's not difficult to be productive as an individual; but teams are much more complex and require constant tweaking. The highest performing teams are continually improving. A good Engineering Managers puts the systems and processes in place that make the team stronger over time.
But if you're not going to get excited about making your team as awesome as possible, then maybe management is just effectively being an agent of HR. Sounds miserable.
It's not difficult to be productive as an individual; but teams are much more complex and require constant tweaking. The highest performing teams are continually improving. A good Engineering Managers puts the systems and processes in place that make the team stronger over time.
But if you're not going to get excited about making your team as awesome as possible, then maybe management is just effectively being an agent of HR. Sounds miserable.