Well, I just got hit by a PIP

[Kenny818]

Finishing up my second year where I work.  Typically, we start re-negotiating contracts in May, they'll let you know their decision by the middle of the month, and you have to commit by the end of the month.  But they implemented a new rule that prohibits negotiating a new contract if you are on probation or on a PIP.  PIPs are usually 90 days, but mine only goes till June 1, when my contract ends.

Well, what's on my PIP you ask?  A lot of it is stuff like "Must demonstrate a good fit for the community culture" and "show effective communication skills to the satisfaction of the Head of HR".  Some other stuff about how I have to help an insubordinate employee improve his performance.

It's probably time to consider greener pastures.

[Batya33]

Do you feel any of their criticisms of your work style and work are well founded such that you would be motivated to ask for specifics on how to make changes? 

[Wiseman2]

7 hours ago, Kenny818 said:

.  PIPs are usually 90 days, but mine only goes till June 1, when my contract ends.

Sorry this is happening. All you can do is keep your CV and LinkedIn profile up to date and start browsing around for alternatives.  Are you hoping to renew the contract or would you prefer to work elsewhere when the contract ends?

A performance improvement plan (PIP) is a document that aims to help employees who are not meeting job performance goals. Does it concern you that they want these improvements or are all contractors/employees subject to this process?

 

[Kenny818]

4 hours ago, Wiseman2 said:

A performance improvement plan (PIP) is a document that aims to help employees who are not meeting job performance goals. Does it concern you that they want these improvements or are all contractors/employees subject to this process?

 

They have been used in the past in place of the usual "two weeks notice".

We had a few new people come along in the paygrade above me and they have been using it to get rid of people and bring on their own people.

[Wiseman2]

2 minutes ago, Kenny818 said:

 they have been using it to get rid of people and bring on their own people.

So inventing enough supposed "needed improvements" to justify not renewing a contract?

[Coily]

11 hours ago, Kenny818 said:

Well, what's on my PIP you ask?  A lot of it is stuff like "Must demonstrate a good fit for the community culture" and "show effective communication skills to the satisfaction of the Head of HR".  Some other stuff about how I have to help an insubordinate employee improve his performance.

That's terribly vague. Not knowing specifics (nor wanting to) of your company these could mean just about anything. Unless you are in the HR dept, why do they have to approve of your communication and not your immediate supervisor?

It really sounds like they are trying to set up a termination of the contract "with cause" from my perspective.

[Kenny818]

12 hours ago, Coily said:

Unless you are in the HR dept, why do they have to approve of your communication and not your immediate supervisor?

One of the guys who works for me has pretty much said he doesn't like being managed by me and that he wants my position. His wife works in the HR department and is close to the HR director. 

[Batya33]

7 hours ago, Kenny818 said:

One of the guys who works for me has pretty much said he doesn't like being managed by me and that he wants my position. His wife works in the HR department and is close to the HR director. 

OK. Is there anything in their criticisms you would find helpful to work on in this job or a future one?

[Kenny818]

On 4/22/2023 at 8:12 PM, Batya33 said:

OK. Is there anything in their criticisms you would find helpful to work on in this job or a future one?

As the PIP is written, they're not very helpful as they can mean just about anything, and the goalposts could be moved.

The closest thing to a legitimate criticism, in my opinion, is I came across as being "insensitive" towards an employee who is an expat.  This all started about 2 years ago.  He tried to make it seem like I was giving him a hard time because he's a foreign immigrant, but that was far from the case, and he just wasn't making the cut.  Unfortunately, my boss did tell me to cut him some slack as he's new in this country and just getting adjusted to being in an unfamiliar environment.  So for six months, I kind of let him get away with a lot that other people (including other expats) did not get away with.

After six months, he still wasn't doing very well.  Some people had lost patience with him too, particularly after a certain sexual harassment incident.  Other people just felt he was quirky and that this incident was a product of cultural misunderstandings.  So I was told to just give him an official written warning (which would expire at the end of his 1-year contract).  Come the end of the year, I didn't want to re-hire him (and submitted the recommendation to my boss as to why), but my boss didn't agree and also mentioned that we should re-hire him so that he can continue to have a visa and rights of abode here.

That's when I said that nobody really has a "right" to a job if they can't do the bare minimum the job requires.  Now the fallout for that might unfortunately be that they lose their visa, but once they are out the door it's the government's problem.  That was considered incredibly insensitive.  Admittedly, I probably should have worded it better.

Long story short, he did get hired for this year and that's when he basically went from simply being incompetent to also being antagonistic.

[Coily]

Sounds like a very politically charged work environment. Also the fact he was given cover for a sexual harassment incident, really makes me think you are being targeted by the higher ups who want to purge honest feed back.

Tread cautiously.

[Kenny818]

1 hour ago, Coily said:

Sounds like a very politically charged work environment. Also the fact he was given cover for a sexual harassment incident, really makes me think you are being targeted by the higher ups who want to purge honest feed back.

Tread cautiously.

Guy who I described above, got married to someone in HR several months ago.  His wife went to the same college as the HR director, though they graduated in different years.  My boss happens to be from the same country as this guy.  Though I am also from that country as well, I am a dual citizen here, having immigrated 12 years ago and obtained citizenship in 2020.  I have done my best to assimilate and have learned the language, while many immigrants/expats from that part of the world do not.  Because of that, I somehow am perceived to have more "privilege," while these guys are thought to have it tougher than I do.  So, some people are quick to consider any moves against them to be overly harsh or discriminatory.

I can say that in the last year, things have become weird.  For example, our company operates in both the official language of our country and English.  If you're an "external hire" (meaning a non-citizen) you can officially get a professional training credit to learn the language, but if you're a citizen, you have to come in already knowing English.  In practice, it meant that people who were non-citizens would simply get hired one paygrade up from normal with very little actual oversight on them learning the language (for instance, weren't required to show receipts or transcripts of enrolling in a training program).

[gamon]

Maybe it's time to take some accountability as to why you were asked to sign a document that says you better shape up or ship out.

Even if you land a new job, these sorts of problems tend to follow you around.

 

[greendots]

On 4/24/2023 at 8:46 AM, Coily said:

Sounds like a very politically charged work environment.

This. Do you really want to work for a company that has a very politically charged working culture?

 

[Kenny818]

3 hours ago, greendots said:

This. Do you really want to work for a company that has a very politically charged working culture?

 

I think the thing that pissed me off is they could have just told me they weren't going to proceed with renegotiating a contract. Instead they're using the PIP so that I'll technically leave in worse standing than if they had just decided not to rehire. 

[MissCanuck]

On 4/24/2023 at 3:33 PM, Kenny818 said:

Now the fallout for that might unfortunately be that they lose their visa, but once they are out the door it's the government's problem.  That was considered incredibly insensitive.  Admittedly, I probably should have worded it better.

Did you actually write this in some sort of official document/report? 

 

[Kenny818]

18 minutes ago, MissCanuck said:

Did you actually write this in some sort of official document/report? 

 

No. I only mentioned the sexual harassment issue and the fact that he wasn't pulling his weight in official reports. I was told to more or less "let it go" since losing his job might mean he would get deported. This isn't exactly true since as a white collar employee he could apply for an extension.

I did say verbally (and never in writing) something to the effect that I couldn't justify keeping someone on, simply because they need a visa to stay in the country.  They basically thought that it was insensitive of me to ask for him to be replaced because of that. 

[Wiseman2]

On 4/24/2023 at 9:33 AM, Kenny818 said:

  my boss didn't agree 

Unfortunately it all seems to boil down to this. There seems to be a lot of behind the scenes politics and they want to keep this guy and you didn't.