[jwsteigerwalt]

Both times I put someone on a pip it was heartbreaking. They were hired to do X, Y, and Z. Their cv indicated they were capable of X, Y, and Z. Both desperately needed the job. The pip was “you must complete X, Y, and Z each week. I can’t do your work for you, but I want you to be successful and I’m here to support you”. One was a payroll related position where the lens in which they were evaluated was clear (we need less than a certain number of paycheck errors each month).

Both failed… I would have much preferred keeping them to finding and training someone new.

[ugh123]

Keeping low performers on a team (or ones that yield "failed projects" consistently) isn't good for the rest of the team and/or your own personal stress and productivity (as a manager).

[cqqxo4zV46cp]

It depends. Sometimes people just need a kick in the ass. Sometimes they have a blind spot that needs to be pointed out. People should be given a chance to improve. In terms of action required, there’s often very little difference between helping an under-achiever hit the mark, and helping an adequate performer grow. It’s just a question of expectations. I argue that a failure to ever do the former makes one a bad manager.

That’s not to say that they should be given infinite leeway, but nobody here has made that argument, so…

Sometimes a PIP is just a PIP. I’m sick to death of the increasingly clickbaity articles that cause employees to preemptively put their shields up as a result of painting every workplace as being a very particular sort of…terrible corporate America.

[ugh123]

>That’s not to say that they should be given infinite leeway, but nobody here has made that argument, so…

I interpreted this from OP: >Both failed… I would have much preferred keeping them to finding and training someone new

as giving infinite leeway, like "i'd rather not go through the hiring process and just 'deal with it'".

[apple4ever]

Totally agree. I've had to put people on PIPs and also had to decide instead of a PIP just cut them. It's never fun, but these people were long time underperformers. I'm sure in some places they do PIPs as a formality, but I never seen that and I would never do that.

[mgarfias]

Sometimes the employee comes down with a chronic medical problem that affects performance.