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Master The PIP, Avoid The Pipe
Performance Improvement Plans usually mean you’re getting fired, and that often happens. But it doesn’t have to happen, no.
I’ve been put on one performance improvement plan in my life, but in reality I probably should have been put on about 2–3. I don’t say this to indicate I’m a bad worker by any means. I’m not the greatest employee of all-time, but I’m not the worst.
The sheer fact of the matter is, a performance improvement plan is all about managers covering their own ass. It’s yet another thing we toss over to HR as “their domain” and somehow still attempt to ’empower Human Resources’ despite the fact that they’re now shepherding an employee right out the door.
Alright, so here’s my performance improvement plan story: I was working at ESPN in New York City. The role was completely ill-defined — we were supposed to be putting ESPN The Magazine online. No one had discussed that with existing ESPN.com editors, though, and they were all threatened as hell. Instead of focusing on the core challenges of what was happening, all our leadership did was (a) bitch about the structure of everything and (b) try to get short little videos we made onto ESPN TV.
I write about job role and definition a lot, and the reason I do that is because I think people miss this one core idea all the time.
There’s not really such thing as a “bad employee.” There are just “people with certain skill sets and backgrounds in the wrong fit.”
I know some Baby Boomer middle manager just gagged on his Healthy Start frozen peas, but I honestly believe no one is a “bad employee.”
Workplaces often force individuals into inauthentic situations. Or, conversely, they force them into situations where they have no idea what their job is. Those are equally demoralizing, especially if everyone around you is rushing around screeching about how busy they are.
That was my situation at ESPN when I got put on a performance improvement plan. My first assumption, of course, was that I’d get fired. I didn’t, though! More on that in a second.
