My colleague was PIP'ed a couple years back but beat it in a month and since then has had two years of met expectations ratings and was spared in the layoffs as well. What does a PIP really mean at Nike. She was all nervous during the layoffs and is jittery about applying for other similar internal roles fearing the PIP might affect her chances. People that have been PIP'ed or have monitored a PIP please add your thoughts.
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Actually they should PIP the managers who started the PIP to see if they are even capable to do the same things they expect. Most would not as they’re comfortably running their mouths without any skills these days. I doubt Senior Directors even know their managers could not do what their team does.
@ca Exactly this, you can have non-performers completely checked out and unable to do anything to fire them until you do the PIP dance.
Anyone who thinks that a PIP "doesn't go on your record" at Nike has clearly never been a manager who had to put someone on one. It's a bunch of paperwork the manager has to write up, all of which gets filed into Workday and attached to the employee's HR profile. It's frankly a big PITA and very inefficient. But efficiency isn't the point. The point of a PIP is to build a record by generating a paper trail and logging lots of supporting documents to create a case for termination with cause, and manage the risk of the terminated employee suing the company. It's to cover the manager, HR, and especially upper management from risk.
"At-will" employment doesn't mean wrongful termination laws don't apply. A terminated employee in an at-will state can still sue for a discrimination or wrongful termination if applicable. The goal of a PIP is to make the termination justifiable for cause, or as legally defensible as possible, by thoroughly documenting how an employee did not legally meet the performance expectations of their role.
@bc You sound like a leader that genuinely cares about the success of your team. We have a lot of leaders wasting a lot of time digging to find anything and making it impossible. There are times when the common denominator is the leader!
@a9 It is essentially finding a way to set them up to fail because Nike doesn't want to fire without "real cause" so they give the perception that it was with cause.
What is really interesting is that generally speaking when a team has several people "sometimes meeting" it is a reflection of the leader or lack of leadership!
I can confidently say that none of these comments are likely of any help to you. The reason is because the understanding, usage and success of PIPs very GREATLY at Nike, so there is no benchmark of what a PIP means at Nike. If a manager wants to fire you, they could likely just fire you. Nike is at-will. If you're getting a PIP, that's by in large a GOOD thing IF and ONLY IF the PIP makes sense, is actually achievable and YOU are holding your manager accountable for giving YOU feedback so whatever the outcome is isnt a surprise. So, there's HOPE and hope is always a good thing these days. Also, if they dodged rounds of layoffs like you said, they're clearly not someone the manager just wants to simply get rid of. So tell your colleague to buckle up, but on their positivity cap for the day and get to work!!! :)
I was a manager and had to use PIPs to fire the worst of the worst on my team. The Kayeyleighs and Kelsheseys in HR won't allow managers to simply fire people for incompetence or malfeasance, instead, they force management to use the charade of a PIP to create the illusion that the employee has some chance of turning things around and avoiding termination. They don't. HR thinks they're covering their as--s, legally speaking. Bottom line, if you're on a PIP, you're getting fired, it's just going to take 90 days.
PIP means your manager wants you off their team. No joke.
Pip at Nike means look for a new job. I was given 90 days to move up in performance, and I took it very seriously, I was depressed, stressed, constant anxiety, but still have it my all, and was told by my colleagues that my work was appreciated. 30 days in I get on a Friday call with my manager and I’m fired. It was such a shock.
PIPs are the most stressful thing an employee can experience, and incredibly cruel in my opinion.
I was put on a PIP and my manager said it would be too hard to actually tell me what to do to improve. She said it was hard enough writing the PIP. Fired 5 months later.
i dont agree thats its a fancy way of getting rid of teammates (maybe for some managers) but i looked at it as a mechanism to try and help people who are not achieving their responsibilities to try and get them to that level. As someone who has had to put 4 people on pip plans over the years 3 people were able to step up and are still here and one had to be let go and the person we let go literally did nothing all day and did not take the plan seriously. It obviously varies based on manager but i never made the pip something that was impossible to achieve i set it to match what the basic requirements of the job were (come into office, do your basic job). Also, pip does not go on your record
Fancy way of getting rid of teammates, even if you achieve said goals, the goal post will keep on moving and the evaluation is subjective and in the hands of the same person that wants to get rid of the teammate.
They put expectations very high and if these are not met it’s a way to get rid of that person. It puts a lot of pressure to be on a plan so achieving the goals might be less doable than without being on a plan