How To Beat A Performance Improvement Plan - “I Got Fired!” Show From The Spiggle Law Firm

What you need to know about Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) - The Spiggle Law Firm, protecting federal employees, shares trial lawyer tips for handling PIPS, public sector laws, potential retaliation from your boss, and more.
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The “I Got Fired!” Show, hosted by Tom Spiggle, gives real-world advice for workers who have been fired or are afraid they might be. Featuring expert employment lawyers who specialize in protecting workers, we cover unfair dismissal, discrimination, disability, litigation, and more.
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[@dlisinch]

No matter, in the case of the private sector. Your on your way out. If plan A (PIP) don't work, there's always a plan B. Your supervisor could be under orders to reduce head count. This has happened, more than not. Like any good thing in improving performance like a PIP, it can be abused for some other hidden agenda. Start the PIP and planning your way out, retirement if you can, or getting another job .

[@SRVHendrixPage]

what if your supervisor impedes your progress...tells you to make 3 cakes, but says they are all damaged and no good (even if prefect just like last month) and then says you are unable to make 3 cakes while everyone else can make 6, where, in reality, everyone else makes 6 cup cakes compared to your 3 wedding cakes... in other words is it legal to just put a pip on and follow the format as a front knowing the demands in the PIP will not be met because they already decided to eliminate you before the pip was ever formally given...of course no proof

[@engineered-mind]

As of 2023 - A PIP is a deceptive way of releasing someone

[@klyons217]

In the US private sector, why would a company put you on a PIP to "cover their bases"? If they simply "lay you off", they have to pay Unemployment Insurance and severance. If they put you on a PIP, and then Terminate WithOUT Cause, it's the same: they have to pay Unemployment Insurance and severance. If they Terminate WITH Cause, and state it's due to poor performance on the PIP, they may face a Wrongful Dismissal Lawsuit. The reason is: most courts frown on companies using performance as Cause. The idea is the company had a chance to evaluate you before hiring you (looked at your resume, asked you questions, etc). Then they made the decision to hire you. Also, you may have been at the company for many years, with awards and excellent performance reviews from prior years. No. Cause is something criminal like theft or violence. Occasionally you find a small business owner who tries to weasel out of paying severance by using a PIP and claiming the person didn't improve. But they learn when they pay court fees and settlement in the subsequent lawsuit (normally much more than the severance would have been!). So I think most companies know: if you want to lay someone off, just do it. If you are hoping the employee will improve, put them on a PIP.

[@sallywfu2915]

Kevmeister very well said and good information

[@ASMRGRATITUDE]

I sure hope you're right. Wish me luck. I think I will make it through.

[@Dieje]

@@ASMRGRATITUDE Did you make it through?

[@Dieje]

well Said

[@ASMRGRATITUDE]

@Dieje yea I actually did. Still with the company today and have since been promoted. Interesting turn of events in my life for sure!

[@Akwardturtle]

I worked for a govt contractor. Who put me on a pip for work defects. However, they were constantly moving the goal post on the project. I was an electronic technician, they constantly changed drawings after i used material causing shortages. Management would purposely remove work tickets, from where work was being performed.

[@cleenegame]

The employee should at least be given a number of transfer opportunities before being laid off. PIP is very arbitrary. HR is there for the company, not for the employee.

[@klyons217]

1. I agree about transfers, but what *should* happen (morally) and what *does* happen are two different things here. At the company where I worked, "Transfer Opportunity #1" was move from Albuquerque to Phoenix in the next year or lose you job. That was semi-fair: people had time to choose, and the climates are similar. Also, if you had to leave your family, it's only a 7 hour drive. You could visit on weekends. "Transfer Opportunity #2" was: Move from Seattle WA to Phoenix in the next 6 months or face layoff. That was NOT fair. The climates are totally different. They are 1400 miles apart! Drive time is 23+ hours! Completely different climates! When a company offers you a transfer, it's not fair if that transfer is too fast, and is to Antarctica! 2. About HR for the company: YES, they are. However, their purpose is: "Oh shit, this guy's getting a lawyer, and his manager is an ignoramus... we better intervene!" So they can actually help negotiate, before you go legal.

[@martinisitt5522]

I was on DWP until July 2020 during covid I have more than 1 terminal condition I've got plates & pins in my leg, I've got 3 plates in my head, & due to an accident which smashed the rib below the heart into the heart which has 2 breaks it whent into the body, deep to the sternam which smashed a bone, for which it took 4 years to tell me that I shouldn't be alive with the injury that I have & that I can not be operated on as I would die & this was by the top sermon and to go and live my life the best way you can it took 8 years to get help, for which I got my DWP & then they put me into a pip assessment, even though I have had 4 benefits assessments before before

[@viktorask]

I would highly advice if you want change companies start under performing, take PiP money and go! Was setup for me. Its easy way for no reason let go any employee.

[@martinisitt5522]

If you saw the assessment report you think it was a monty python joke, my DWP was stop with a lot of serious medical problems which cannot be fix if they could fix me i would be back working in the profession that i did before the accident which i was top in

[@joanbaczek2575]

So if Walmart gives me pip first then fired me I have no ground to sue for wrongful firing? Is it better in private sector to quit if handed a pip? How do I prove proper productivity at Walmart I can’t film my self working