If you’ve been a manager in tech long enough, chances are you’ve had to navigate the difficult process of placing a teammate on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). It’s a delicate situation and can affect you deeply if you come out of the process feeling like you were less than fair to all your duties. After all, it’s someone’s job, livelihood, and intrinsic worth which is in the balance.

At PathAI, we never use PIPs as a mandatory precursor to termination, unlike many other tech companies. So I did have organizational fairness and support of leadership on my side when I was going through such situations. However, I wrote these guidelines for myself so I could put my thoughts on paper, and reflect and iterate later. These are my own views and not any formal policy of my employers.

What Do You Do as a Manager When a Team Member Is on PIP or Pre-PIP?

Best Case Scenario Ranked:

1. If it’s salvageable – Find a way to improve performance, ensure consistency, and leave them with a sense of achievement if they succeed.
2. If it’s not salvageable – If it’s apparent to everyone that improvement isn’t possible, focus on reducing anxiety, stress, and unnecessary work for all involved.
3. If it’s uncertain (grey area) – Provide a fair chance, monitor and keep them updated as things progress to reduce uncertainty, and help them find learning opportunities and silver linings in this experience, independent of where it ends up going.

Guiding Principles

Be fair—to the teammate, the team, and the mission

• Set achievable goals. Create a plan that aligns with the role’s expectations and is realistically executable.
• Involve them in the plan. While they didn’t decide to be on a PIP, they should have a say in how to succeed and get out of it.
• Consider team dynamics. Enabling bad behaviors or tolerating poor performance can impact overall morale and set the wrong expectations. It’s also unfair to the rest of the team. Think deeply about broader team trust when making decisions.

Be specific and accurate — Over-communicate

• Set clear, specific, measurable goals.
• Explain the rationale behind the PIP, deficiencies, and expectations with full transparency. Over-communicate, with clarity. Make sure nothing gets lost in translation.
• Reinforce that performance improvement isn’t about a temporary push — it’s about sustainable behaviors and results that align with the role.

Be humane

• Be a manager, but also an advocate. Guide them through the process.
• Reduce uncertainty wherever possible.
• Ask: What’s preventing you from meeting these goals? How can I help?
• Discuss and make them understand why it’s needed. Explain your perspective, team’s perspective. Ask them if they are aligned. This is important.
• Empathize with them; it can happen for multiple reasons, even if it is justified, it can still hurt.

Introspect

• Ask yourself: Could this have been avoided?
• Reflect on whether expectations were clear from the start.
• Look for systemic issues—hiring, onboarding, or role clarity.
• Own your part in the process and commit to improving.

Resources

• Navigating Performance Improvement Plans – Lara Hogan
• A Personal Take on the Dirty Little Secrets Behind PIPs – The Skeptical Guy
• Rethinking Performance Improvement Plans – BetterWorks