I just had to PIP someone for the first time, and I think I’m more stressed about it than they are. I remember being the struggling junior who needed a break, so putting someone on a formal path to exit feels like I’m betraying my younger self. Does it ever get easier to deliver bad news without losing sleep over it?

You threatened someone’s job and made this about you? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

If you know they just need a break like you did, why not meet them half way, and try support them?

Before a PIP is ever introduced, the question should be: did this person receive the support they needed to succeed? That includes clear expectations, proper training, and consistent coaching. Without that foundation, a PIP risks setting someone up for failure rather than improvement.

At its best, a PIP should be a structured opportunity for growth, not a signal of exit. It should create clarity, rebuild alignment, and give the individual a fair path to improve.

Using a PIP as an exit strategy without genuine effort undermines trust and reflects more on leadership than the individual. We are all human, and strong organizations lead with accountability, but also with fairness and intention.

Hopefully you never get used to it and that you are not using it just to get rid of them and truly trying to help them improve. If not, well, karma.💙☮️

I thought was designed to help someone, you are using it to manage them out. No wonder you don’t feel great. Totally against the principle of it.

Don't put someone on PIP ever. Just tell them they got 60 days that they will want to look for a new job and give them time to do that. If you put them on a PIP it could make things much harder for them once you let them go.

do unto others as you would have them do unto you

It should not become easier to deliver bad news- personal or professional. If it does, That implies you have no empathy.

There is big difference between someone needing a break and someone not performing well because they are not capable. If you know that someone just needs a break, then you shouldn’t be putting them on PIP. Unless you are just following orders. If someone is not performing the job they are hired to do, then you have no choice as a professional to take action.

So I don’t know what exactly your scenario is and the whole thing about “younger self”. Putting someone of PIP unfairly is one of worst professional thing to do. But doing the same because they are not capable, is a business decision.

You're indirectly causing violence to a person. This is slightly hyperbolic, but allow me to explain. A PIP, even a successfully fulfilled one signals to your employee that they are alone the way out. Even if they pass the PIP, they're going to be on edge about losing their job. If they already are burnt out and need a break, you just made that much worse. Stress and burn out make a great employee a terrible one, and it is no fault of theirs. They're going to either perform worse, or leave. Leaving and finding a job where they are valued and respected is the best case for them, but the job market is horrible so that's hard to see happen. Most likely, they will lose their job. If they can't find a new one, then they'll lose their home, car, likely their relationships, the extra stress you put on them will make them a worse parent. You failed to manage this employee. You failed to recognize burn out. You failed to correct work loads. Their burn out is on you, and if they lose their income because of your actions, anything that comes from that is on you and should keep you up at night. If recommend apologizing, going to your higher ups about additional paid time off as compensation for the stress you caused and give them the break they need.

The fact that you feel bad says a lot about you. Don’t let corporate cause you to ever lose your empathy

Yes, it gets easier when you realize you're doing it for the right reasons. Your job is to coach the team members and focus on their path that leads to better career growth. Further, you are responsible for creating and fostering a well rounded successful team. This is your job and you must perform it or you will be replaced.

The first time that I had to let someone go I felt awful about it; it's not pleasant. But I will share that at one point in my career, I accepted that this is part of the job and I'm required to do my job. Additionally, I had to remove someone toxic from the team and I knew he was toxic because he upset that the job was different than what he imagined he would be doing. I outright told the employee that he was going to be happier somewhere else and be more successful... he was.

So, yes, it does get easier as you mature into the role and your team(s) will be better off with you at the helm when you get there.

I'm not sure what kind of companies you all work for but employees at my job do actually have an opportunity to improve on a PIP, one of my closer co-workers was on one and still has a job after he put in the work to improve.

I had so much work at a position I worked at, that I was pulling 18 hour days (on salary), and the boss thought it was somehow a good idea that I get put on a PIP vs. Hiring more people to get the work done.

I was already in an abusive employment situation, and the PIP was not warranted at all.

I started looking for the exit way before the PIP was issued, but I put in my 2 week notice afterwards. I had built enough in my 401K post tax that it was easy to walk away with money in my pocket and find something else to do with my life that wouldn't be 18 hour days...

It will not get easier. Ever. And, if you are PIPing someone whom you feel really did not deserve it, nor merited correction, you are having to accept your role as an "agent for the company," instead of a conscientious coworker seeking to help someone genuinely underperforming.

Assuming you are lead or manager, the PIP may transitively indict your leadership or ability to manage. So, you should be looking over your shoulder definitely. If the situation is bad, and you have options, explore them now.

It can get easier, in a sense, but a lot depends on the "type" of PIP or organization.

I've seen a large organization, in a difficult business climate, avoid the inconvenient legal requirements of layoffs, by choosing to identify the bottom x% of "poor performers" and place them on PIPs. Every team from the best performing teams to the horribly performing teams had to PIP x% of each individual team -- and the final decisions were made by a vote of a cross-functional committee, that were most-likely not at all familiar with the people they were voting off the island. In this case, NO, for reasonable humans a process like this should never get easier.

In a more sane world, PIPs are still a last resort, used when an individual is not meeting the expectations of a role after genuine attempts to work with them on needed improvements. In this case, YES, it can get easier.

It gets easier when it is in the best interest of the employee. Even with the most empathetic and supportive management, sometimes individuals are simply not a match for the expectations of THIS role in THIS organization. In some cases, a PIP can provide the employee one last chance to prove that the needed improvements can be made. Only the employee can decide if the role is worth the effort. If not, it's 60 or 90 days better than being told that today is your last day. Also, realizing and deciding that "moving on" is the best choice can be difficult for an employee and a PIP can be a useful nudge.

It gets easier when the employee has a continued negative impact on the team. If an entire team is negatively impacted by one mismatched employee, it is your reponsibility as a manager to correct that. It's in the best interest of the employee, the team and the organization to identify an alternative situation in which the employee can succeed. If that team does not exist in the organization, then a PIP is the remaining choice. My largest regret related to PIPs, is not assigning one soon enough. My desire to avoid a PIP led to unnecessary prolonged struggle for both the employee and the team. Soon afterward both the employee and team were in much happier situations.

I bet your junior self would have eventually learned to appreciate a PIP providing honest and ultimately beneficial feedback. And, in the case of a potentially undeserved, organizationally-forced PIP, your junior self would have appreciated a manager doing their best to provide honest guidance through a difficult and potentially unfair process.

You have to remember you did it for a reason. We all need someone to push us. You can be pushed positively, or negatively or by getting married lol. The point is, your job is to increase value for the company and in doing so increase the value of each of its pieces.


A garden that is not maintained will bare less fruit.

Isn’t capitalism awesome! Everyday of you’re waking life is a battle to survive and eat or be eaten…as if you’re a gazelle on the Serengeti living amongst pride of 1000 lions who are out to completely devour you. The puritan work ethic and view that life should be a nonstop battle to compete and stay alive is the fundamental principle of capitalism.

One thing though - if you are born rich, privileged, and are a member of the billionaire class, none of the above applies to you. You can literally sleep in until noon everyday and feast on steak and red wine and just scoff at the stories you hear about poor people literally dying from disease because they lost access to health insurance or keeling over their keyboards after having worked themselves to death following a 100 hour work week. After all, the slaves…er, I mean the worker class serves only to make our masters…er, uh…I mean our employers richer. That’s what capitalism is all about! USA! USA! USA!🇺🇸

The reason people generally PIP is that they are planning on firing but don’t want to pay severance if that was ever an option. I hope companies are aware, and I’m pretty sure most are, that it doesn’t get you out of unemployment claims. In a cheap state, it works, and more expensive ones it’s still expensive. Beyond the mere financial aspect of all this, I think that maybe there is some sort of mental health issue that is getting away of someone not being able to do their job or doing their job in a way that causes problems or simply make somebody else have to do it over again I would see if they’re eligible for accommodations before moving to a disciplinary process involving incompetence, that is a PIP. It’s good to get that out of the way because if that is an issue and you didn’t address it before trying to fire this person, it might make firing this person more expensive than simply lay them off.

Sometimes I feel like 3/4 of the management needs to be PIPed and then fired immediately ; )

It’s also used to push people out of the company

PIP is also the new way of getting rid of folks cheaper, with out any layoff costs. To your question, I've had to release folks as well and no doesn't get easier if your a good manager.