A company manager shared a story of one of his team members who was put on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). However, rather than letting it break their spirits, the employee submitted a three-day notice and left the director “totally floored.” The post shared on r/managers had received 1,900 comments as of publication.
The manager started the post by writing that the employee was adored but still kept on a PIP. The manager did not agree to it but could not do anything. The Reddit user wrote that the director set up a regular coaching session out of the blue, and when the employee logged onto the meeting, HR was already on the call. On the same call, the PIP document was displayed on the shared screen.
“Dude was in shambles. But used the PIP as a paid interview period (as he should), probably because HR was saying one thing on what a PIP is, but my director was basically saying he was not cut out for the job he had for 5+ yrs,” wrote the manager.
The manager further added that he, along with the employee, was invited to a follow-up call, as the PIP employee had insisted on weekly follow-ups. It was also written that HR was never on those calls, and it was either the manager alone or the director along with the manager and the employee.
On one such scheduled call, the manager hopped on to find that HR was already on. During the call, the employee submitted a three-day notice. “I'm not mad. We planned to fire him over a 2k-5k (though tenured) account nobody cared about, but the relationship was deep,” the manager wrote.
“I was interviewing for director roles elsewhere (getting reps in), and in late a few times. I figured he used this as a paid interview period, which explains his lateness to work. Dude was never, ever late to work; he never took PTO. Suddenly he was eating up PTO, and I was absolutely approving it.”
The manager then wrote that the director was “flabbergasted” by the employee’s unprofessionalism. He vented his frustration on a call with the manager. However, the manager took the employee’s side and wrote that he had three young kids and a baby. “We were about to let him go when rent is due, without severance."
The manager concluded the post by writing what he told the director: "But he owes us nothing.” One commenter wrote, "Unprofessionalism is used the same way as respect. Where people throw it around, and any behavior that isn't being a doormat is called unprofessional or disrespectful.” Another commenter wrote, “As someone who was put on a PIP after 6 years for one missed deadline - that PIP was the best thing that happened to me. Got me a 40% raise somewhere else.”
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the incidents, identities, professional backgrounds, or businesses described in the original post or the comments. The details above reflect accounts posted by individual users on r/managers.
