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Denis's avatar

Agree with what you wrote, but there is one reason a formal PIP sometimes succeed where pre-PIP efforts failed. For some employees it is difficult to understand how bad the situation is until it is put formally in front of them. It does not matter how clearly it is expresed beforehand, they would still interpret the messages optimistically.

A formal process may help (and helps), but it is very challenging, as you wrote. The critical ingredient is very high level of trust between the employee and the manager.

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Amazon Days's avatar

good general insight, but does not vibe with my experience at Amazon because I successfully managed my first report out of PIP. The situation differed because I was not the one to put him there: his previous manager did. I agreed to take him on, and then was told the next day I needed to put him in PIP :-) Why did it work? His 'attitude issues' had nothing to do with the intrinsic quality of his work or fit with the company (he still works at Amazon after years) but with how he came across to many colleagues, hindering collaboration. Together we worked on Earn Trust and Leaders are Right, A Lot - and achieved these goals.

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