I like to think that management is a noble profession if done right. I've seen a handful of examples over a 10+ year career thus far.
You get to empower people to be better versions of themselves everyday. What other job allows you to do that?
The reality however is that most EM jobs are in fact bullshit jobs. They usually have people who are simply managers/operators, not often leaders nor coaches. To summarize a people manager's job, it's two main things:
1) Get results
2) Grow & retain your people
The challenge is that many EMs are also "assholes" so both of these goals are hard to accomplish. They fit into an asshole category in itself:
- political assholes master the art of corporate politics but do nothing but take credit for everyone else's work.
- controlling assholes micromanage to the point of strangling creativity and joy out of their team while taking credit for others creative ideas and call them their own.
- asshole assholes are mean, jealous, and insecure jerks who find ways to lie and manipulate others for their gain.
- mission-driven assholes are people who are crazy passionate and trample over how things are "done around here" to see the mission succeed.
Note: I use the term "asshole" in reference to Tony Fadell's book "Build". It's a fun way to think about it.
Most engineering teams tend to optimize for the incentive of the engineering manager, not the whole team. It's winner-take-all. The good EMs are the ones who see through this and ensure their whole team is empowered at the potential cost of their own incentive. These EMs usually win-win in the long term.