What a PIP really means (employee, average, interview, unemployment)
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If an employer wants to get rid an employee but doesn't want to fire or lay them off, they first go talk to HR and ask how to do it so they don't get sued, and HR tells them. One of the most common ploys is to put people on a PIP (Personal Improvement Program). This is a code word for building a case to fire someone, because even if you meet or exceed everything asked of you, they can still say, "Yes, but it was the way you did it that we had a problem with and you are being terminated." For those learning about what a PIP really is for the first time reading this and this happens to you, take the time to find a job with another company. Because only a fool would reveal they are leaving their current company because they were given a PIP. The good part about this, you are still employed and the new company doesn't have to know your current employer is trying to discard you. And this totally explains why you will not be giving them your current supervisor to contact, because as you will smartly say "I don't want them contacted because I don't want them to know I'm looking to leave."
This happened to a friend of mine. If you get a PIP, you'd be wise to immediately update your resume, gather your best references (and NOT your supervisor!) and use up any vacation and personal time you can take to interview with another company. Because if you look for another job with that same company, HR is going to reveal that you are on a PIP and this will poison you where no one else is going to want to hire you. So your only option once you get this PIP is to look for a job outside the company.
Why is the company doing this if you are doing your job? A number of reasons, but mostly it's because you cost too much and they want to hire someone cheaper or their friend or your boss finds your skills threatening. If they do a layoff, then they can't really fill the position because in many large companies that means they lost the head count for the position. So what they really want to do is get another employee in there. Maybe someone younger too, but they aren't going to say that either, because that's ageism. A younger employee literally costs the employer less because the group policy rates are set based on the average age of the pool of employees. So if you have a younger staff the costs are lower, the company saves money.
Once you get this PIP and go to HR and say "Tell me, should I quit? Do you want to fire me?" they aren't going to break rank and they will just tell you to do what is on your PIP. They have no other choice, HR works for management.
I've heard of people being put on a PIP and doing everything and staying, only to find out they were put on another PIP within a month. You might wonder, why is management putting me on a PIP, why not just lay me off or fire me? Well, if they do that, then they have to defend themselves with unemployment and pay you this severance. So if you get the PIP, they are hoping you will just find a job with another company and quit. Because if you quit they don't have to pay you severance and they aren't going to be called upon to defend their weasel tactics with the unemployment office, where they are going to have to explain themselves when asked, "The employee did 100% of what was asked of them on a PIP, yet you terminated the employee because you didn't like the way they did their work?".
Look at it this way. If you were called into an office without warning and just fired or downsized, most people's reaction is why couldn't they warn me this was going to happen. They can't warn you, not officially. So they use the PIP. The thing is unless employees tell others, they have no idea if someone else is on a PIP or not. It's not a thing to be proud of, but there could be employees who you work with right now that are on a PIP and you don't know it. Yes, there might be some employees where they really want them to improve on their job and after being total a number of times to change how they work, they don't do it, but management is totally using the PIP to get you to leave on your own.
You might think, screw them, I will sit there and do nothing and let them fire me and I will have my severance package. Yes, but then you have to deal with the fact you were fired and work to conceal that or explain it to the next employer, and you don't want to do that.
Remember HR is not your friend.
Last edited by eastcoastguyz; 11-21-2014 at 01:46 AM..
Politics and popularity rather than merit are the number one reasons why people are hired and the number one reason why people are fired. Work is a social club. If the members don't think you are cool to hang out with they will look to get rid of you or not hire you in the first place.
What a nation of shallow adolescents we've become. It also explains why we have many of the elected officials we do.
The funny thing is, in most states, you can fire anyone for any reason as long as it's not one covered by law. I can go walk the halls right now, find people who have on blue socks on Friday and fire them.
For wearing blue socks on Friday. It's completely legal.
Kudos to Eastcoastguyz for posting this thorough account of what PIP really is because so many inexperienced folks think that they have a chance to survive termination when in reality, PIP is the best notice you are going to get that your time is up. My best friend was put on PIP a while ago, right away, she called me, her initial thoughts were "How do I improve my performance, what if I do this, that, etc" and I was very frank with her, instructing her to:
1. Accept the fact that she is about to be fired and has maybe 2-3 months.
2. Stop wasting her energy trying to satisfy all the whims of her manager who has already made up his mind and start investing this energy into looking for a new job.
3. Start finding little things that she can bring to HR to enhance her chances of getting severance because I had a feeling that a****hole manager was not planning to let her have any.
Long story short, she followed my instructions, ended up getting 20K in severance, and nice unemployment as the company was in NJ which back then paid like $650 a week for two years, so she decided to stay home with kids instead of finding another work. She called me after it happened and thanked me, not just for helping her get the money out of them but for helping to save her sanity.
I'm sure there is some truth to this in some companies with some managers, but what the op has written isn't really true.
Most states are at will, and employees can be terminated without having to provide just cause - so they can be fired for any reason. So the fear of a lawsuit isn't valid.
Having said that, anything is possible, so good managers know how important documentation is for everything and everybody. It isn't case building (though in some cases, I'm sure it is), it's an attempt to let the employee know how serious their performance deficiency is, come up with a plan, and work with him or her to get them back on track. In the past ten years I've probably used a PIP with ten people and only one was let go. With that one, I didn't go into it hoping for failure, but hoping the employee would improve, but the truth was, things only got worse.
Employees who have problems, often think their performances are stellar, so when hit with any kind of corrective action, they look for someone to blame.
Front line managers are always between a rock and a hard place. If they don't give people on their team an opportunity to improve, they're being unfair. If they do, and follow protocol with the use of a PIP, it's viewed as case building. They cannot win.
In my experience, the co-workers I later found out had been put on a PIP were highly deserving of that action. Some made the corrections necessary, but most eventually moved on to other jobs either inside or outside the company. I can't even think of anyone that had to be fired. They took the hint and either got their act together or left.
Frankly for most, the company was being nice, they could easily have just been fired and many truly deserved that fate. Some simply weren't capable of doing the job and needed more training, others had chronic issues like never being on time, constantly calling in, saying the wrong things to customers, etc. My company is pretty good about letting people take care of family type stuff, but once you get to that point where your co-workers start having to do your job - it is the beginning of the end. And as we all know, once you lose your co-workers trust and support, you're done.
I'll note that most managers do NOT want to fire someone that is on a PIP, they want them to find a way to be successful. That's good management and they look BETTER if they can "save" that employee. This is especially true if the manager hired that person. The manager looks bad if they hired someone and then have to fire them. Makes their initial hiring judgement look bad. That said, a good manager will do it anyway because they also know that whatever it takes to keep a successful team is their bottom line goal.
Contrary to popular CD belief, it is much easier to fire someone than to try to salvage them. We go out of our way to try and save people we could easily fire because it costs time and money to repost, interview, rehire and train someone. Some people can save themselves; I literally talked to a guy two hours ago who was able to pull his head out of his ass and keep his job after being put on notice. I agree that a lot of employees who are put on PIP are eventually fired, but they are not fired because of a conspiracy to put them on a PIP, most are fired because they are an employee who, for whatever reason, simply can't get with the program. It is a convenient excuse to blame someone else (management) for personal shortcomings.
Contrary to popular CD belief, it is much easier to fire someone than to try to salvage them.
Legally it is but many companies have various company policies about firing someone. In order to fire someone they have to go through the motions of a PIP even though the reason they want to fire said employee is because they simply don't like them. So the PIP is just a horse and pony show.
Legally it is but many companies have various company policies about firing someone. In order to fire someone they have to go through the motions of a PIP even though the reason they want to fire said employee is because they simply don't like them. So the PIP is just a horse and pony show.
I would not expect any other opinion from you.
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