21–30 of 76 posts
This kind of bullshit and “sorry nothing I can do” response from a line manager is unacceptable to just be ok with - especially when it’s purely driven by rent seeking.
This guys boss picked him to be on the performance improvement plan. Even if his boss was forced to pick someone because of quota, the fact that he was picked must mean he was at the bottom of the pack in terms of performance. My advice would be to be humble enough to admit that the performance can be improved and take ownership of that fact and not make excuses like " my boss put me on notice because of a quota, i g…
A.E Housman had something to say about the belief that the world is generally fair: "He [Joe Public] believes that the text of ancient authors is generally sound, not because he has acquainted himself with the elements of the problem, but because he would feel uncomfortable if he did not believe it; just as he believes, on the same cogent evidence, that he is a fine fellow, and that he will rise again from the dead. "
This guys boss picked him to be on the performance improvement plan. Even if his boss was forced to pick someone because of quota, the fact that he was picked must mean he was at the bottom of the pack in terms of performance. My advice would be to be humble enough to admit that the performance can be improved and take ownership of that fact and not make excuses like " my boss put me on notice because of a quota, i g…
This guys boss picked him to be on the performance improvement plan. Even if his boss was forced to pick someone because of quota, the fact that he was picked must mean he was at the bottom of the pack in terms of performance. My advice would be to be humble enough to admit that the performance can be improved and take ownership of that fact and not make excuses like " my boss put me on notice because of a quota, i g…
PIPs are used as tools to lay people off or get revenge often. It's not meant to be an actual "performance improvement plan." There's many stories of people hitting all requirements within the PIP to still not hit "the bar" due to a constantly arbitrary and changing PIP requirement. PIP is often a cowardice way to do layoffs or for upper management to not admit they have too many resources allocated for their own del…
But in this case it's not even a real PIP.
Get some documentation that proves this. Hire a lawyer. Go to HR. Get a settlement...
If not: in general, in the US, it's perfectly legal for a company to just arbitrarily decide they need to fire N people, and arbitrarily choose a particular person to fire meet that "quota". This is true regardless of how many layers of managers are involved, or what bullshit PIP hoops are jumped through.
There would only be a legal issue if the worker was subject to a bona-fife employment contract (quite rare) or if they were discriminated against on the basis of a legally protected characteristic. Just being the least senior member of a team is not legally protected.
This guys boss picked him to be on the performance improvement plan. Even if his boss was forced to pick someone because of quota, the fact that he was picked must mean he was at the bottom of the pack in terms of performance. My advice would be to be humble enough to admit that the performance can be improved and take ownership of that fact and not make excuses like " my boss put me on notice because of a quota, i g…
PIPs are used as tools to lay people off or get revenge often. It's not meant to be an actual "performance improvement plan." There's many stories of people hitting all requirements within the PIP to still not hit "the bar" due to a constantly arbitrary and changing PIP requirement. PIP is often a cowardice way to do layoffs or for upper management to not admit they have too many resources allocated for their own del…
This is a perfect example of why we need a union for tech engineers. The “if you were better” argument or other reasons that people in tech love to use doesn’t apply here - this is a pure capital Vs labor power dispute. This kind of bullshit and “sorry nothing I can do” response from a line manager is unacceptable to just be ok with - especially when it’s purely driven by rent seeking.
1) Is the quota for a number of people who need to be put on PIPs, or a number of people who need to be fired?
If it's the latter, the employee is effectively already fired; they're required to fire N people, and they're going to find a way to claim employee failed the PIP, no matter what. Obviously the employee will not be able to answer this question with any amount of certainty.
2) Are the goals that need to be achieved to pass the PIP unambiguous? That is, is it objectively obvious that the goal has been passed or failed?
If any of the goals are ambiguous, management could use that ambiguity to claim some goals haven't been achieved when the employee believes they have been, and use that to justify firing them.
Of course, the manager could also just by lying about why the employee is on a PIP. Maybe they do actually have a performance issue, but the manager is too much of a wuss to flat-out tell the employee this. I agree that it's suggestive that the manager seems to be setting the PIP's goals in such a way that they're relatively easy to achieve, but that might not be the whole story.
Either way, a company that has periodic PIP (or firing) quotas isn't a company I'd want to work at, so I'd start looking for a new job even if I'd still end up being retained after the PIP is over. Ideally I'd have a start date at a new place after the PIP is done, so I could explicitly give that reason for quitting, even though my job there would be (at least for the time being) secure.