Everything was going great.

The team was small – just 15 people across the company. You’d recently been promoted to manage three of them. You’d onboarded well, everyone was responsive in Slack, the vibes were good. You were doing your best to be supportive, available, not micromanage.

Then one afternoon, the founder pings you: “Can we talk real quick?”

In the call, they say, “I’m worried Lisa isn’t really working full time.”

You pause. “Lisa? Oh no, Lisa’s great.”
“Okay, how do you know?”

And your stomach drops. You don’t actually know.

You’ve seen check-ins. A few deliverables. Good tone. But you don’t know how she’s spending her time. Not really. You start wondering: What are any of them doing all day