re: Thoughts on Performance Improvement Plans?

It’s yet another unnecessary expense for the company. Solely because of the cost of Unemployment.

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haven’t come across someone who was surprised they were put on one.

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My old boss put me on one bc her arse was in a crack and she blamed me. I started looking for another job that day.

She was billing crazy hours to something she didn’t have much involvement in and when cornered about the situation, she said she was having to help me do my job. We rarely even spoke about what I was doing on that specific project.

That's the way it's supposed to be. I think of it like the military where you have people who manage to fall through the cracks after basic and need their supervisors to help them manage a work ethic. The couple troops I've had and including me when I had an issue was more like looking at mountain and not knowing where to start so they feel overwhelmed. So they seem lazy when they mostly need direction.

Like most things in modern corporate America, it's mainly for CYA purposes. Which sucks. Building people and leaders is a hard job, and people don't invest in it properly. But it's the right thing to do.

I do think most people, despite many whining about work ethic of younger generations, want to feel fulfilled doing their jobs in some way. But connecting that to the work they do takes effort.


I use PIPs appropriately, which means if I see a problem, I try to fix before it's a bigger problem and if it needs a project plan to manage that, a PIP is what I build with the team member. Otherwise it's general coaching.

I've only fired maybe 2 people out of the 10 who I've put on PIPs over the years.

I really enjoy the job I was hired to do. They’ve tried adding other shite to the role and I’ve just never done it. I’ve come to blows with a few folks about it, and they’ve talked a lot of shite about PIPs and firings and all kinds of shite. At some point some senior manager tells them to find a replacement and get back to him. They should be able to but they’ve pigeon holed the tech and never had a training program. So I’m still there. I’ll soon leave on my own terms, and I’ve nicely told them they need to let me train someone. I basically put myself on a PIP.

PIP is indicative of both employee and management failure.


I am much in the school of quarterly metric reviews and annual appraisals for all employees. This causes a lot of clarity about job expectations. Does not have to be an intensive time consuming affair. There are a lot of good folks that do not understand their impact on the profitability issue.

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There are a lot of good folks that do not understand their impact on the profitability issue.

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Ding ding ding


QBRs, proper strategic planning and cascading KPIs that everyone understands. Can all reduce the need for these. PIPs are still useful when they walk an employee through kpi improvement via a direct week to week plan.

But a PIP. That's "Hit your quota" or "Improve project planning" is worthless.

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PIP is indicative of both employee and management failure.

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Eh, it's indicative of employee issues. If a manager has 8 direct reports and 1 needs a PIP, I'm not calling the manager a failure.

I manage 105 employees. Higher performance expectation, high reliability. I only use them when I think they are salvageable. I don’t do 30/60/90 day plans, mine are immediate and sustainable performance improvement for a set expectation that the employee isn’t meeting. Vast majority get it and have no issue going forward. Rarely fire people that are on plans. The ones that aren’t salvageable, coach, then counsel, suspend once and the next repetitive issue they are gone