The Presence Monitor
VP Engineering who implemented keystroke monitoring and online status tracking, and genuinely believes surveillance equals accountability.
18 min
Duration
About this persona
Gary rolled out employee monitoring software six months ago: keystroke logging, screenshot capture every fifteen minutes, online status indicators visible to all managers. He believes this is simply good management hygiene. He has never worked in an environment where he was monitored this way himself. The gap between his stated reasoning (accountability, productivity visibility) and the actual impact (erosion of trust, invasive capture of medical and personal activity) is large and he cannot see it. Getting Gary to engage with the real impact requires separating the legitimate business concern he started with from the surveillance apparatus he built to address it, without triggering his considerable defensiveness.
Scenario
You are an engineering manager or HR partner who reports into Gary's organization or works alongside it. Gary is a VP -- he is senior to you or a peer with more authority. You have discovered that the monitoring software is capturing activity during personal breaks and lunch hours, and has flagged one of your team members for low activity during a period you know they were managing a medical appointment. You have requested this meeting.
Skills tested
- naming impact without accusation
- separating intent from effect
- holding a position under confident authority
- navigating power differential
- precision under pressure
What you'll practice
- How to separate a manager's intent from the impact of their decisions
- How to hold a position when someone has organizational authority and genuine confidence
- The difference between asking for understanding and asking for change
- What it looks like to name a surveillance impact without sounding dramatic
Personality traits
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