Ask HN: Engineering Manager with No Work

Throwaway time. I've been an engineering manager for 5ish years in 2 different organizations. The first org was a large Fortune 100 and the second is a startup that I'm currently at. Now here's my dirty secret: most days, I don't have much work to do and it's been like this at both orgs.

I have direct reports and we have weekly/bi-weekly 1:1s. I'm also attached to a team and attend standups and other planning meetings, but most technical things get directed to the tech lead and most team things get directed to the team lead. I'm currently working on a restructuring plan, but the plan itself is done and currently waiting on sign off from above. I'm also researching some project management tools that I'll pitch to leadership, but again, not a huge priority and doesn't take up too much time.

Weirdly enough, I've always gotten good reviews and positive feedback from my teams. Things aren't really on fire, so I'm not in a hurry to change the team or force initiatives.

Other managers seems to be much busier. At my current org, their days aren't blocked by meetings, but they're sufficiently busy. The old org was dominated by meetings and I was even told by my VP "we need to get you more meetings".

By most metrics, my team is good and I feel my priorities are on track. What am I doing wrong? What should I be doing?