Some potential clients approach me when they are already in trouble with their boss or their company. This happens when they are put on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Their urgent call to me is because they want to explore ideas on how to deal with this “sudden and unexpected” development and to understand what they must now do to conquer this beast!
Before I provide some guidance on what to do when you are involuntarily signed up for a PIP, let me disabuse the commonly held belief of its “sudden and unexpectedness.” PIPs happen as a culmination of festering pain that exists between an employee and their manager for a period of time. Often, it seems sudden and unexpected to the employee because of their being in a state of denial when its prelude starts well ahead of the actual PIP.
The first sign that something is wrong with your relationship and performance with your boss is when you get a verbal notification that something is not right. Usually, this happens in a casual and benign way as a part of the regular meeting with your boss. Sly bosses weave this in along with some sweet talk that happens as a part of your regular meetings. “Sally, I’m really happy with your reports, and you are doing a great job with the new project. I also wanted to tell you that Jim Jones was saying something about your last report that I did not agree with; he thought that it did not explain the reason for the late shipment.”
After a pause, seeing a puzzled look on Sally’s face, he continues, “But, don’t worry, he will come around. Make sure that your next report is more clear.” Sly managers do this as the meeting is ending and push you out of the office. You are sill basking in the glory of what he said first, “ Sally, I am so happy…..” that you walk away whistling back to your office, despite this ominous warning that you just missed interpreting correctly because of how it was delivered.
If you are now on a track to a PIP things rapidly escalate. The next meeting with your boss will ONLY be about your performance and he may end it by saying to you, “Sally, unless I see immediate improvement in your work, I may have to get HR involved in these discussions.” Often, you continue to stay in the denial mode and keep thinking that this is not a big deal, at least at this stage.
No, it IS a big deal. It was in the very first instance when your boss first complimented you and then gave you that dire news from Jim Jones.
Even before the HR gets involved the manager now changes his tone in which he starts assigning you tasks and giving you feedback on your work. When you reach this state of escalation it means that you are now headed for a PIP. Generally, when you are put on a PIP it means that you are in the terminal stages of your employment with your boss and your company. Often, once you are on a PIP you cannot be transferred to other areas within your own company because of the company policy. It is a clear signal that they want you out.
I have worked with nearly 25-30 clients, who were on a PIP during the past 10 or so years. Only in two cases I was able to help my clients not only retain their jobs, but getting their managers fired because of the gross unfairness with which the process was handled. It took about one year of sheer hell for these clients to deal with the process, getting HR and skip-level executives involved. Regardless of the outcome, the dealing with this process is not fun.
Here are my suggestions for dealing with a PIP and its prelude:
- Consider all performance-related discussions with your boss as a prelude to what is next, no matter how it is packaged or delivered. Do not go in denial over adverse inputs.
- In the early stages see if you can work with your boss to remedy the situation and show a turnaround. Ask, do not assume.
- If the complaints escalate expect that all of this will result in a PIP and start making alternate plans for leaving your job and finding a new one outside.
- Seek professional help in dealing with escalating performance discussions and know what your options are.
- Work with your manager and tell them that you have decided to leave and you would appreciate reasonable time to find alternate employment.
- Stop the PIP from taking effect by preemptively working with your manager and making alternate plans. NEVER assume that you will be able to deal with the PIP, meet its oft impossible goals, and start with a clean slate at your place.
- Do not personalize the PIP plight (“I should have done this or that”) although you must take it personally by taking action to deal with it from the get-go. It is almost always relationship-based and rarely performance-based.
Good luck!