[travisb]

In most cases the firing decision has already been made because all the sustainable levels of informal support have already been exhausted.

After the team lead has endlessly explained, reassigned, and simplified a person's tasks, and just generally tried their best to make the person a productive member of the team _and failed_, then they've given up and put them on a PIP so they can be let go.

AFAICT PIPs are must CYA's.

[xnx]

I don't doubt there are genuine performance reasons for some PIPs, but there are countless political reasons too. A direct report may make a manager look bad by knowing more than them, question their decisions, have favor in other parts of the organization, etc. Many managers can only succeed by extinguishing any dissent and hiring beholden loyalists.