That's exactly the "verify" your parent was talking about. Unless you happen to have a situation where your project includes regular submission of work artifact

That's exactly the "verify" your parent was talking about. Unless you happen to have a situation where your project includes regular submission of work artifacts -- which describes a lot of modern software, sure, but is far from universal -- monitoring the work regularly is at odds with the "trust" you mentioned above. I've often seen managers who attempt to monitor like this accused of micromanaging.