[retrocryptid]

that's very similar to my experience. i swapped managers about a year in and my second manager put me on a PIP. except that it wasn't really a PIP, it was just him saying "i'm putting you on a PIP." -- I didn't know the difference until I had left. A friend in HR told me (after I quit) that managers do this to try to get more performance out of people. If you're on a PIP, HR will be involved.

Also, the best C++ coder I know got dinged 'cause he was refactoring huge amounts of redundant code checked in by a different developer. I think he was eventually able to convince his management chain that DRY is a good thing and got back on the promotion track, but not before the other developer (who introduced a metric crap-ton of crap code) got promoted. After taking a metaphoric crap on our project, he then left for a different team. It took two years to fix the codebase.

[itsathrower288]

A real PIP always has HR involved. Note to any Googlers: If a manager tells you you're on a PIP, feel free to reach out directly to HR and ask for information about it. Or your skip level, who will be pretty surprised if it's not a real one, and probably not too happy about it.

On your second example, this is where having senior technical people in the calibration room is really important. The key there is ensuring that said technical people know about the work before they are in the room. It is really difficult to change outcomes after the fact. You can't expect them to defend something they don't know about.