I spent the last 6 years NOT working, and living off the ample proceeds of my skill, dedication and innovations of the previous twenty-five as a programmer and analyst.

In that time I encountered several lower and middle managers who expressed similar views to those you've just expressed. I even had the misfortune to work under one for a short time, though I mostly managed to avoid that situation by weeding them out at the interview stage. S'funny how they all thought that they were interviewing me.

In every case they were failed programmers who had had been moved sideways into management to get them out of the way. A common, but ultimately destructive practice in corporations with old-style, job-for-life terms of employement dating from circa 1975. Sidelined, and on the long slide into a career cul-de-sac, their embittered "professionalism" slowly takes it's tole upon all who work under them, and the teams and departments they run.

Enjoy your trip. It'll be a short one.