Unfortunately, quite a lot can go wrong with a PIP. It is paramount that personal safety is discussed with the manager who will help deliver the plan as well as with any security teams you might have at your disposal. You’ll want to discuss some worst case scenarios and plans to mitigate those risks in advance as well as ensuring the manager knows exactly what to do in the event of violence.
There’s also a variety of negative outcomes that do not involve violence but should be discussed as well, such as someone who quits “on the spot” by walking out. Another reason to discuss negative outcomes with the manager and security is because there is a threat of sabotage or intellectual property (IP) theft. Some employees decide immediately that they will quit but use the long timeframe of a PIP to secure another position first. These employees can be highly disruptive or subdued in their responses, so this is not indicative of a risk of sabotage or theft.
Lawsuits and allegations of discrimination or harassment are also potential negative fallouts of issuing a PIP. Be sure to mitigate this risk by clearly understanding everything the manager tells you about the situation and by documenting, listening for flags from the employee, following up on allegations immediately and coaching the manager on proper responses to various possible employee reactions.
All of these are reasons it is crucial to break past the denial the employee may have about their underperformance and to be certain the manager has had reasonable expectations that are not being met and has discussed the gap between performance and expectation multiple times explicitly before issuing a PIP.