The Most Terrifying String For Software Engineers To Parse In Their Brain : PIP
By: Xincheng Ma
Tags: Management, Performance Improvement, Performance, Feedback, Performance Reviews

The Most Terrifying String For Software Engineers To Parse In Their Brain : PIP Xincheng Ma Follow May 29 · 10 min read

It’s a kind of hard in Silicon Valley these days. Since the Covid-19 pandemic strike US and the whole economy paused, tech startups started layoff. Cutting 10% is actually a sign of doing well. A lot of companies cut over half of their employee, and some even file bankruptcy. Even those most popular unicorns like Uber and Airbnb, are also laying off. To be honest, it’s not quite rare to see people in tech companies been laid off. Statistically everyone will be laid off once or more during their career. So please don’t feel too sad when it happens on you. It’s not your fault. It’s purely bad luck. Just find another job, and you will go through it.

Other than being laid off, another thing that can also mess you up is PIP. When you are interviewing for a manager position, 9 out of 10 will ask you whether you have PIPed or fired anyone. Feels like it will complete your manager career. It’s impossible to control whether you will be laid off or not, but there are sth you can do for PIP.

So let’s talk about PIP today.

What is PIP?

PIP is short for Performance Improvement Plan. Different company might have different name, like Dev List or Pivot (Yes, for folks from Amazon). Basically, the reason to have PIP is that company want to properly handle people who has undesired performance, by designing a plan to help them improve. Of course there are times when it is used to avoid being sued by employees. Although every employment in Silicon Valley is “at will”, companies can still be sued if they fire people without any reason. Some employment lawyers might also contact people who are laid off by those tech giants, to help them sue their employer for free but with a cut. So you will feel this PIP process looks a lot like a way to gather evidence to prove you are suck at work. Some companies will also provide you another way out, by signing a deal and take a few months’ pay as severance package. It’s a win win for everyone. Company can save a lot of efforts to do PIP, also don’t need to worry about being sued in the future. Also employees can take the money while finding the next opportunity, especially when the market is hot.

Generally PIP takes around 30 days, but can be extended based on need. Since it’s a plan, it requires a formal document signed with both you and your boss, sometimes even including HRBP. What’s in the document is mainly divided into 2 parts. First is why your performance is an issue, which will include examples like missing deadlines, break production system, attendance issue, etc. Some issues will be mentioned with specific when, where, what and who, while some might be more related with your soft skills, like your attitude and behavior. Second part is about what you need to achieve within next 30 days, in order to get through this PIP process. That will include finishing which project by what time, what needs to be done to call it successful, and how should you behave during that period of time and also in the future. In theory company can still fire you while you are in PIP, of course you can also choose to leave, but normally both sides are patient enough to go through the whole process.

Does it mean I’m fired?

This is probably the most important question that everyone cares about after being PIPed. My answer is NO. But it depends on the company, depends on your manager, and most importantly depends on you. As long as it’s not personal matter, as long as it’s not bureaucracy, there is decent chance that you can get out of it. Think about this. If this process is not conducted fairly, you can appeal and it may turn out to back fire your manager. So no one is too bored to PIP their reports for fun. The goal for PIP is force you realize what’s going wrong with your performance, and hopefully you can turn it around like doing a 180. But that’s not easy. PIP doesn’t mean it’s the 1st day your manager realizes those concerns. In contrary, normally they have been there for a while, and your manager usually has already warned you multiple times. I’m talking about months or even years. So you failed to change it for such a long time, and now you need to totally turn it around within 30 days. So think about the odds. In my opinion, if you manager is willing to give you more time for the PIP process, also those documented requirements are not necessarily unreasonable, like those are what you guys have talked before during your 1:1 meetings, you probably can make it, as long as you can make some solid changes within that period. Even as notorious as Amazon, there are still people who eventually come out of PIP, especially if you are not necessarily doing bad, but just unlucky got ranked at the bottom of the group.

In fact overall a lot people can’t make it, because for most people, the moment they knew they are PIPed, they choose to use the time to prepare interview instead. There are only very limited people who do try to survive that. There is no right or wrong on that. It’s just personal choice. Someone feels being PIPed is like a stain on their profile, and someone feels they can’t face their managers any more after knowing what they do. It’s probably a good idea to start over again. There are also people who can’t really take it easy at all, and they might even choose to diss their manager instead of thinking about why. I always suggest to keep calm, and do a retrospection of yourself. Understand why you are PIPed may help you become someone better, or it may make you realize that it’s definitely the time to say goodbye.

Retrospection as IC

Think about this. As long as your manager is a reasonable human being, as long as there is no grudge, no one will benefit from this tedious and delicate process called PIP. On the contrary, your manager might even got back fired if there is anything inappropriate happened in the process. That’s why most managers avoid to spend time in the PIP process. So please don’t blame everything on your manager, without thinking about your responsibility in it. Everyone has blind spots. People tend to find excuse, and only look at what they want to focus on. In fact, a lot of times you may not do so well on certain areas, at least not as good as your colleagues. Maybe you feel it’s OK to take longer to get job done because you just graduated for a few years, but that may be quite different with what your manager expected. Maybe you didn’t pay attention to your manager’s feedback. It may sound like picky for you, but it may totally be seen as an attitude problem from your manager’s perspective. Yes, those could be a big issue sometimes.

People may also complain about the fact that they are working pretty hard, and why they still got PIPed. As an Asian, our culture values a lot on hard working. However, as a manager, you will be responsible for the result of the whole team. So naturally, managers are result driven. They won’t get the exceed rating for themselves, because of their team just work hard. In fact, when your manager is watching you being working so hard but still can’t get job done, they lose their fate in you. That might be the moment they decided to let you go, and started the PIP.

So please try to calm down, and find reasons on your side first. Trust me, no one hire you to their team just to bully you later. If you feel you are not treated well, think about why that happens to you, before complaining. If you believe you have made a ton of contributions, but still got PIPed, there might be bias in your own self-evaluation.

Retrospection as Manager

As manager, after going through the PIP process, whether they survived or not, you need to look back and try to answer those questions : How could I come to this stage? Is there sth I missed during interview process? Are we really aligned on expectations? Maybe what I expect is way above what they can do? Or perhaps I was not giving the clear feedback? Do they feel PIP is a totally surprise? What else I can do earlier to eliminate the needs to go through PIP?

As a qualified manager, one of the most important principle is to hire slow, and fire fast. If someone unqualified or unproductive stay in the team for too long, a ton of damage will be done. It’s more than just how productive the team can be. It will become a matter of fairness. Other team members may feel they are not treated fairly. That could hurt the team culture, and also the morale. The longer they stay, the more damage to the team. So, that’s why so important to discuss and align expectation with every new member during 1:1 meeting when they join. You should talk about things like how long it should take for on-boarding, what do you expect him to be like in a few years, and what is great work. Besides, when you found some issues after working together, pay attention to why that happens. Is that due to lack of technical experience, or is that a attitude or culture issue? Typically it’s OK to be a little more patient or relent on the technical side, because normally it can be resolved with just more guidance and more patient. However, attitude issue or culture fit will be hard to deal with. For example, lacking of motivation, or not being proactive. It’s extremely hard to estimate how long it will take to change people’s mind. They are grownup, and they may never change. So if that’s the case, you need to prepare ahead of time. Be direct on your feedback, and don’t sugarcoat it. This way they won’t see the PIP as a surprise. Also set up a deadline for it. If they can’t show enough progress during that period of time, PIP is not the end of the world. Eventually, you may find that’s the best for both parties.

How to Avoid Being PIPed?

First and foremost is to understand what you are expected to deliver, from the perspective of your manager, your company and your position. Most performance issues are due to unclear about what’s the expectation for you. So you need to focus on the real valuable things, those most important projects. Always keep in mind of the priority. No company wants to see you stay overnight everyday. They just want result. Result includes getting job done on time, and also with high quality.

Second is to use the 1:1 meeting wisely. It’s a great chance to ask for feedback from your manager. It will be more effective if you can try to proactively point out where you feel you can do better. In this way, your manager can tell that you are ready for the negative feedback, and it will make them easier to share those hard truth with you. Besides, you can also guess where you are based on what type of feedback you usually get in the 1:1 meeting. If you find that you haven’t received any real positive feedback or encouragement for a while, but always things to change, that’s a strong signal that you are not “safe”, and don’t be surprise of PIP.

Lastly, think about “cost effective”. Try to lower your “coaching cost” for your manager, and try to be more “valuable” for your manager at the same time. The so-called “coaching cost” is how much effort and time your manager needs to spend on you, by giving you feedback, and grooming you to become who he expects you to be. This depends on how sensitive you are to his feedback, and how serious you are to make those changes. Everyone like to work with people who want to make progress, and people who want to move upward. Regarding “being valuable”, that depends on how many problems you can solve to help your manager out. When sth come up, could you show up and get job done? How many help you need from your manager in that? Every manager likes to have someone very “cost effective” in the team. If that’s who you are, how could they think of PIPing you?

Final Words

If you are really unlucky, and got kicked out after being PIPed, please don’t doubt yourself. That’s just part of life. It doesn’t prove anything, but that job or position doesn’t fit you. You can always find sth else fits you better, and most likely you will be happier for your next job. Maybe you will be in hyper growth mode instead.

Wish everyone good luck!