Performance Improvement Plans: The Ultimate Waste of Time

Oh hey, well in case you didn't already realise, this article is going to get straight to the point. So here it is.

Performance Improvement Plans, PIPs or whatever you know them as, are 99.999999% of the time a completely useless exercise designed by lawyers to cover the arse of employers. There, I said it.

Now let me explain why. Having had to manage a few of these 'plans' over my working life (and to qualify, no I have never been subject to one), I can tell you that most employees and managers who are involved would not be able to tell you any of what the plan involved, or how it was ultimately measured and decided that an outcome had been reached. In which case the question has to be asked - what is the actual point?

Performance Issues generally fall in to one of three categories:

• Shit that you could - or will - be immediately fired for
• Shit that your employer either knows or has a pretty good idea you're doing/not doing, but isn't solid enough to fire you for
• Shit that can't be proved and may or may not have happened, but we'll never actually know until you either do it again or someone confirms it sometime way after it's too late to actually fix.

PIP's exist only for option 2, because after that the employer then has grounds to say 'well we tried to work with you, but it hasn't worked out so yeah'. And this is why I maintain my opinion that they are the ultimate waste of time and usually occupy more time for the person managing it than the person subject to it - thanks to the lawyers for that one.

In my book it is oh, say a thousand times better to just have it out - here's what you did, here's how we know, now how do we move on from here. That way everybody is aware of who knows what and it sets a line in the sand far clearer than any PIP will ever be. Honesty is the best policy and all that.

So until I have enough world changing ability to abolish PIPs to the same place Y2K taskforces ended up, they'll keep being rolled out (and for what it's worth I do the ones I have to). But once I can push that button - PIP's can - and should - become a thing of the past, and let's try the honest approach instead.