I got a PIP. Here's what it taught me

"Performance. Improvement. Plan. Taken at face value, the phrase sounds gentle, maybe even helpful, like the start of a company-sponsored self-care journey. In reality, a PIP is usually the workplace equivalent of a death sentence, a corporate guillotine that gives "being on the clock" a whole new meaning. At least that's how it felt early in my career when it happened to me."

"The news hit like a cold email from HR with no greeting. I remember sitting across from my manager (let's call her Lisa) at a long-ass boardroom table, fluorescent lights humming, my coffee going cold as she explained the "expectations moving forward." She had that tone people use when they're rehearsing empathy. And while I tried to keep my composure, all I could hear as Lisa spoke was, "Your days here are numbered.""

"I was working at a startup-one of those scrappy, ever-changing companies where job descriptions are more like suggestions. Every few months, my priorities shifted, as did my boss, team, and sometimes the department I worked in. Still, I kept my head down, remained adaptable, and did solid work. But at some point after my third job title change, I started to lose steam. Projects dragged. Deadlines slipped. Some of it was on me-constant change can burn out even the most proactive employee."

A Performance Improvement Plan arrived and felt like a corporate death sentence. The manager explained expectations across a humming conference table while the employee perceived rehearsed empathy and feared imminent termination. The workplace was a scrappy, ever-changing startup with frequent role, boss, and department changes. Priorities shifted every few months and job descriptions acted as suggestions. Workload chaos, unclear direction, competing priorities, and constant pivots eroded energy. Projects stalled, deadlines slipped, and persistent urgent requests created a sense of spinning wheels. The combination of organizational instability and burnout produced the circumstances that led to the PIP.

Read at Fast Company