I was put on a performance improvement plan and survived. It felt isolating and discouraging, but I’m a better employee now.

The author, not pictured, was put on a performance improvement plan.

I felt like a deer in headlights. I sat there on Google Meet as my supervisor explained the parameters of a performance improvement plan (PIP). I was frozen, and I felt powerless.

I could feel the panic rising as they went through the events that led to the PIP, but they still assured me that there was a way to overcome this new obstacle. They then pivoted to the milestones and other performance tracking measures that would be implemented to ensure I could reach the level they needed for the role.

It was my first year with the edtech company, and it had been an excruciating production season where everything that could go wrong did. It was hard not to feel unfairly penalized, but I also could not write off my clumsy mistakes.

Either way, the PIP said this: Improve by doing X, Y, and Z within the next 60 days, or you are gone.

I can’t say that being on a PIP was a fun or exciting experience, but it did help sharpen my focus and ultimately made me a much better employee.

I completely changed the way I worked

I immediately got to work. I needed to buckle down, complete every project, and ace it all. Nothing could be left incomplete on my watch.

I also had to meet with my supervisor so they could see my progress. We met weekly to discuss my work and had daily check-ins on Slack.

As someone who did not handle micromanaging well, I had to be humbled and brought down a peg to accept the help. This helped me continue “showing up” to work rather than throwing in the towel.

I needed to touch base with the clients in my portfolio more regularly. I built a spreadsheet to track when I last heard from each client and when I last reached out. That strategy helped me stay in communication with each client — without having to sort through my inbox looking for our last word to one another.

Additionally, I jumped in on asks and volunteered for extra work. I hoped that would show how I planned to put more into my work going forward. Most of these additional tasks did not take long, but they went a long way in making sure my name was in circulation. It also showed my supervisors that I was not only working but doing good work. While my job was very much an individual role, there was a fair amount of collaboration needed, and having helped others with their tasks, in turn, helped with goodwill down the road.

I survived the PIP and became a better employee

For the last two weeks of my PIP, my manager stopped meeting with me weekly and said our daily check-ins were done. I more than met the expectations and milestones prior to those last two weeks, and my supervisor was more than pleased with my performance. However, I continued to keep a running list of what I did day to day.

Surviving the PIP itself was a relief. I felt like I could breathe again and not feel like something was looming above me.

While nothing felt changed in my day-to-day beyond the release from all the extra tracking of my work, I had changed as an employee. The strategies I implemented during the PIP stayed with me and became a part of my weekly workflow. It helped make my role much easier and work-life balance better — while serving me so well that I even received a healthy raise the following year.

Long story short, the PIP can seem like a professional death sentence, but it doesn’t have to be. If you embrace it, it can be a whole new door waiting to be unlocked.