This presentation explores how hybrid work shapes monitoring practices and, in turn, influences employees’ sense of trust, wellbeing, and innovation on a day-to-day basis. Monitoring is often viewed as intrusive and controlling, particularly when it involves close oversight, which can undermine autonomy and contribute to distress (Knight et al., 2022; Knight et al., 2025). However, when enacted as supportive and feedback oriented interaction (Liao et al., 2016), it may facilitate learning and enhance performance, including innovation. Hybrid work, where employees divide their time between home and the office, may intensify this tension. Remote work can prompt greater close monitoring due to managerial uncertainty or distrust (Parker et al., 2020), while simultaneously limiting opportunities for supportive feedback-oriented interactional monitoring because of reduced face-to-face contact. Despite the widespread adoption of hybrid arrangements, with around one-third of Australian employees regularly working from home (ABS, 2025), these dynamics in hybrid contexts in particular remain underexplored. Especially, little is known about how day-to-day shifts in work location influence perceptions of different types of monitoring and how these shape work characteristics such as autonomy, and in turn, trust, wellbeing, and innovation.

This study draws on the SMART Model of Work Design (Parker & Knight, 2023) to investigate these relationships using a daily diary design. Data are collected from 250 hybrid workers over 10 working days, enabling an in-depth examination of within-person fluctuations in monitoring and their consequences, enabling us to unpack when and for whom monitoring behaviours may be detrimental versus supportive. Key findings will be presented.

The goal of this presentation is to help attendees recognise that different types of monitoring may be perceived differently by different employees, with varied implications for employee outcomes. While some forms may be considered psychosocial risks, others can support wellbeing and performance when delivered constructively. Attendees will gain insight into how monitoring can both enable and constrain wellbeing and innovation, and how thoughtful work design can be used to foster healthier, more effective hybrid work environments. Practical recommendations for supporting sustainable and high-performing hybrid work will also be provided.

Collaborators on this project include Dr. Luke Booker, Prof. Nicole Gillespie, Associate Prof. Stacey Parker, Ms. Franzisca Fastje and ARC Laureate and John Curtin Distinguished Prof. Sharon Parker.