Meet Kevin.
Kevin has become incredibly productive since his company installed employee monitoring software.
Oh, not at his actual job.
Kevin has become productive at looking productive.
He can now complete an entire trip to the kitchen and back in 47 seconds. He knows exactly how long he can stare thoughtfully out the window before a dashboard decides he has become a threat to productivity. He has never been more aware of his mouse.
Kevin isn't gaming the system because he's lazy.
Kevin is gaming the system because the system is gaming Kevin.
While Kevin is fictional, the trend is not. As dispersed teams have become more common, so has the temptation to monitor employees more closely. If managers can't physically see people working, the logic goes, technology can provide the visibility that distance removes.
It makes sense. Leaders want accountability. They want to know projects are moving forward and be able to identify small problems before they become big problems.
Most monitoring initiatives don't begin with bad intentions.
The challenge is that employees don't just experience monitoring. They also experience what monitoring communicates.
"We don't trust you."
"Your judgment isn't enough."
"If we can't see you, we assume you're not working."
The Irony of Surveillance
While organizations implement monitoring tools to increase accountability and productivity, research suggests they often produce the exact opposite effect…
reduced innovation
increased psychological distress
reduced autonomy and commitment
increased disengagement
reduced willingness to admit mistakes or raise concerns
increased intentions to leave
The most surprising finding may be what remote micromanagement does to trust.
When employees are trusted, they tend to ask:
"What is the right thing to do?"
When employees feel constantly monitored, the question often shifts to:
"What is the minimum I need to do to get by?"
One recent study found something even more concerning. When AI-assisted oversight restricted people's choices, participants reported feeling less morally responsible when bad outcomes occurred. The less discretion they had, the less responsibility they felt for the consequences.
In other words, when systems do the thinking, people often stop feeling accountable for the results.
Escaping the Surveillance Trap
The best remote leaders understand that accountability and surveillance are not the same thing. Here a few ideas to consider before implementing that next high-tech monitoring tool:
Give trust before employees earn it. Most people rise to the expectations placed upon them. Treating everyone like a potential problem rarely creates ownership.
Create team norms together. High-performing teams don't need constant monitoring because they have developed shared expectations about responsiveness, communication, and results.
Connect tasks to purpose. Employees are far more likely to stay engaged when they understand how their work contributes to something larger than a productivity metric.
If your culture only works when everyone is being watched, the real problem probably isn't the employees.
People want to be trusted.
Trust has always required a leap of faith. Unfortunately, monitoring software often provides a tempting shortcut.
That's the surveillance trap.
The more leaders try to create certainty through monitoring, the more they risk undermining the trust that accountability and productivity depend on.
Employees rarely rise to the level of your monitoring system. They usually rise, or fall, to the level of your trust.
Dr. Peggy Kendall is a Professor of Communication Studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN and researches trust, leadership, and remote work. She spends her time helping organizations build cultures of ownership, communication, and accountability, occasionally wondering why anyone thought tracking mouse movement was a good management strategy.
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