If I had a PM come by my office twice a day to "check-in" I think I'd quit.
At the moment I have been on a solo allocation for about 6 months. It has let me go down a lot of rabbit holes, which can be educational. But I miss pairing pretty badly on days when I am working on straight regular development.
That said, it really isn't for everybody. But you may want to give it a chance.
If you put two random programmers together and ask them to "pair program", you'll very likely end up with two annoyed people at the end of the day.
I was lucky in being mentored into it by some very seasoned pros, and I learned the tricks of the trade that way.
However, it's like therapy: being forced to do it instead of doing it by yourself will result in a terrible experience.
I'd rather have breakfast with my family and bring the kids to school.
Harassing engineers
> why are they getting paid for it?
Engineers got their work done despite the micromanage (to be clear, I mean despite and not because. Just in case any PM or manager is reading this and thinks micromanaging is why tasks get done)
Of course, it relieves stress and stuff, but if you're THAT stressed because of the project and need constant reassurance from the engineers, you're clearly in the wrong job.
I had to lead a few engineering teams (wasn't a PM, though) and the only approach that ever worked for me was to check things out in much larger intervals, a week, sometimes even more. Actually treat engineers like adults and be an adult yourself. Let them come to you if they have a problem. Sample the progress in much larger intervals in order to reduce noise.
Micromanagement doesn't do any good for anyone.