From my ops manual:
"The aircraft is designed to be flown with the AP, this is the normal method of operation. The SOP is that once the aircraft has passed 1000ft aal and flap has been selected to zero, the autopilot is to be selected. However, hand flying is permitted, with and without the FD, so that skills can be maintained. Use of the autopilot dramatically reduces flight crew workload because it frees valuable capacity for management and monitoring."
Hand flying is good fun, and certainly necessary every now and then to maintain basic flying skills. But the comment about flight crew workload is very true, and I tend to pick my moments carefully. I'll happily hand fly a SID or approach where it's quiet, but wouldn't choose to do it in the London area, where there are constant heading, altitude and frequency changes, and PNF's workload goes through the roof if PF is 'heads down', hand flying the beast.