Has anyone heard of increase in PIPs recently? I have heard this is happening more often with a May 15th deadline for “voluntary separation”. Is that true?
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OP: yes I've seen more questionable PIPs 2023-2024. There's been a problem for years. But ever since Cisco made layoffs into a quarterly event PIPs have become we-ponised by people who have NO business managing others.
Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar: You are romantically involved with someone and things are going very well. For some reason they suddenly start treating you poorly. You can never seem to meet their (new) impossible demands... they give you a lot of attitude and excuses... the cr-p just piles up until you decide "enough is enough, I'm going to break things off." Then you realize: their behavior was by design. They wanted a way out so they took the slimiest, least-effort approach.
This is exactly how I have seen PIPs work at Cisco. It's a pathetic way to get rid of someone. There isn't always a performance issue, it's often a manager simply not liking a person and finding any reason to push them out. I have witnessed 4 reasonable PIPs in 10 years, the rest were all just personal vendettas.
Many people in leadership roles have degrees and certifications covering their wall, but they have -zero- interpersonal skills, empathy, or emotional intelligence. These are the people using PIPs to do their personal bidding.
I guarantee Cisco knows PIPs are being misused. But HR is not providing proper oversight, investigation, or consequences for PIP abuse. So all we can do is document our work thoroughly and keep our CV/resume ready.
After a decade, I'm preparing to leave. Not that it matters, I am just a cog in the machine, but I see the writing on the wall. Way too many good people keep getting let go from my BU (LRs and PIPs) but no replacement hired. With their workloads stacked onto mine, it's impossible to satisfy my manager. It will only get worse with more LRs. Nobody wants to live with the fear of a PIP or LR constantly hovering over their head.
PIP maybe the worse you can get, I remember at PIP you can not transfer, can not be LR'd(no severance package) and never seen a single one survived of this PIP program.
My experience with a PIP was very different. I called out a Sr Manager at a skip-level for playing favorites with a "retention" bonus that was supposed to go to everyone on a project, but not everyone on that project was getting this bonus. It worked, because everyone not getting it suddenly started getting it, but I ended up being placed on a PIP the next quarter.
I was not allowed to transfer out of the team, and it was clear that this was in retaliation for my complaint about favoritism, but ultimately I wasn't let go as part of the PIP so I couldn't file an EOC complaint for wrongful termination. I was having weekly 1:1's and my "goals" kept getting harder and harder and more and more out of my job description's area of expertise and more into "other duties as assigned" categories as the manager tried to find tasks that I was not skilled at. Then an LR was announced and my next 1:1 meeting was cancelled. Then the following Mon afternoon around quitting time, I received a 1:1 meeting request for 8:30 AM Tue morning where I was informed that I was being LR'd and given the details of the severance package.
I actually had a manager on another team who wanted me on their team, tried to ask the VP of our BU to allow me to transfer and was denied. They had an opening on the team and tried to get HR to allow me to pay back a pro-rated portion of the severance package to be hired, and that was denied. A year later, I came back as a contractor and then converted a year after that, and it was a completely different experience being under this new management team.
When I started on the PIP, I tried to ask HR what the "severance package" was and I was just told that I'd be paid "in lieu of notice" when I was terminated. I assumed that meant that I'd get 60-days pay, but whether or not I'd get more I had no idea. No one I've know who'd been PIP'd has shared the details.
All I can say is, I'm so glad that all of that first team's management chain is now gone. They were very toxic and played favorites.
Lately, more and more PIP is becoming a common tactics to push people out both in Sales and CX. Managers and Directors come up with stupid reasons to put employee down, and start showing performance problems. Don’t take their sh-t - fight this out as HR needs to be involved for fear of law suits. Communicate your case with HR, and respond to every accusations of performance issue. One cannot be on a PIP without documented coaching & case built with reasons detailed for PIP. Often PIP order comes from top and managers just execute.
No one has come alive on the other side of PIP. Can’t apply for internal jobs, no severance on LR, no nothing. Just short one month and you’re out. It’s a devious safety net for companies to save their butt to reduce work force without paying severance.
Cisco has been good compared to other companies but lately Cisco too is resorting to dirty tactics. Stay strong, don’t let id--t managers bully you out the door.
PIP maybe the worse you can get, I remember at PIP you can not transfer, can not be LR'd(no severance package) and never seen a single one survived of this PIP program.
Put some of these worthless Directors, Senior Managers, Managers on PIPs. Too many to name in SBG.
Yes and I have seen "PIPs" that are not even sanctioned through HR. What is that about? I have watched a few of my former colleagues get "managed out" through some pretty stupid PIPs but the worse was my former colleague "P" just before the last big layoff. An inexperienced director with a huge ego called "P" into a Friday night webex, shared a PIP loaded with BS, and stated that "P" had less than a month to fix it all "or else." It was a poorly veiled threat. But the PIP had misspelled words and empty fields, and there was nothing to indicate it had ever been from Cisco HR, not even Cisco letterhead. It turned out the Director had downloaded some PIP template from the internet and couldn't even be bothered to fill it out properly. Absolutely pathetic. "P" told the Director to go touch grass. It is sad that this human being is still in leadership at Cisco throwing their weight around- and there are many others just like em. Very toxic and dysfunctional. Long story short: if you get a PIP, make sure it's actually backed up by HR, and not made up by your inept "leader." That way you can feel confident wearing your 100% authentic, officially sanctioned, TEAM CISCO - #1 PLACE TO WORK AND GET A PIP gear. ;o) What a clown show.
Remember that bald guy was shouting double digit growth lol
Double digit ch--d is more accurate 😂😂😂😂
I hope black rock are roasting him
Yes been seeing it since last year and it’s honestly disappointing and discouraging.
The way the business is
Voluntary LR is appealing
Not in my specific group, but wouldn’t be surprised to see more PIPs to get numbers down without layoffs. Err I mean “LR”.