How closely does big tech monitor employee laptops?

I can't speak for what "big tech" does, but I can say that when I worked in enterprise IT, we took the stance that nobody should have any expectation of any privacy on their laptops... but then rarely actually tracked any thing. On the rare occasions that we did track, it was due to an investigation of some sort, and there was an audit trail of who were were monitoring and why. It was never about productivity - that is between you and your boss.

The exception to this was web filtering - if you tried to access a site that was not allowed, someone got an email. That someone was pretty reasonable... they understood the occasional hit on a flagged site because you followed a link. They were more concerned about patterns of poor choices.

In the case of Google, retroactively by using detailed forensic logs.

> Soon afterward, forensic engineers, led by the Google executive Gary Brown, began combing Project Chauffeur’s databases in search of material that could be used to block Uber’s acquisition of Ottomotto. They eventually discovered a small lead. According to Google, a month before Levandowski resigned, he had plugged his work-issued laptop into a Google server and downloaded about fourteen thousand files, including hardware schematics. He transferred the files to an external drive and then wiped his laptop clean.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/22/did-uber-steal...

Let’s talk about occupational hazards faced by people doing forensic investigations...

Monitor in what sense?