it should be stressed that manual flying will not necessarily reduce overload and nor will it increase situational awareness since the workload on the pilot monitoring will normally increase.
I have heard that statement many times. Surely if the pilot has been certified as competent to fly a certain aircraft type this would necessarily mean he was competent at hand flying, automatics watching, monitoring the various instruments and operating the radio switches. So where does this claimed work-load increase come from?
Either way the PM will be keeping an eye on the flight path whether the other pilot is using the automatics or hand flying for the conditions. Let's face it, watching the other pilot pole the aircraft isn't exactly a life threatening job, so how on earth does this increase the work load on the PM?
After all even the youngest inexperienced flying instructor has a high workload concentrating on watching his student pilot trying to do cross wind landings. If an airline pilot workload is getting right up to his upper limit by watching the other bloke flying, then he will quickly blow a brain gasket if a simple generator failure or a fire warning occurs and he has to find the appropriate QRH page.
Claims that watching manual flying increases the other pilots work load to an intolerable amount leading to a flight safety problem on the flight deck, is really laughable. IMHO