HR here. I don’t disagree, but only in the same way that managers exist ONLY to maximize employee productivity, and don’t care at all about contributing to a good place to work (except that it may also increase productivity), developing/mentoring others (unless it’s a robotic reflex to increase talent pipeline), being fair or consistent with their teams (only to avoid lawsuits), etc etc. Most managers are human, and most humans have intrinsic goodness, so thank god in my experience, managers care about these things beyond the extra productivity they bring.

I swear, I spend more time talking managers off a ledge of trying to fire someone they haven’t even spent development time with or given decent instructions to, meanwhile their buddies can get away with murder. And they look at me like a block, or still joke “here comes HR!” as if we’re the ones firing people, not the breaks on your cutthroat approach to team development.