Now that's refreshing to hear that a company can encourage/discourage rather than simply mandate 'you are to' or ban 'you are not too'.
Explicitly encouraged at my outfit, in the OM-A, and in practice on the line. I try to impress upon the FOs I fly with the importance of being absolutely comfortable with the aeroplane regardless of the level of automation used.
My personal preference, heretical as it is on the Airbus, is to use manual thrust whenever I fly manually.