I have to agree. In my experience some of the best managers have been the ones who shielded their employees from bullshit, taking the brunt, making sure we can keep moving quickly towards completing the goals.
This is one of the main goals of a tech manager: "some of the best managers have been the ones who shielded their employees from bullshit". If a manager of a tech group isn't doing that, they're failing at their job, and likely have some form of attrition problems, quality issues, feeling of uncontrolled chaos, etc.
