‘I put in a one-week notice, laughed, and left’: Employee put on a surprise 30-day performance improvement plan during annual evaluation by boss who can’t remember his job duties, quits after landing a better offer

Nothing says "Happy Workiversary!" quite like being ambushed with a Performance Improvement Plan from a boss whose primary management strategy is goofy interrogation and selective amnesia. 

This boss is of a certain managerial species that couldn't define your role on a flashcard, yet specializes in professional gaslighting, fishing for flaws until some microscopic misspelling can be paraded around as proof of failure. Welcome to the annual review, where positive feedback goes on unpaid vacation, and vague accusations take center stage.

A boss so blissfully uninformed about your job that his only metric is the gossipy, vague, third-hand grumbling he collects from equally confused coworkers. Year over year, you're meeting expectations by meticulously documenting every achievement. And now, you're blindsided by a "Does Not Meet" rating based entirely on rumors and events that occurred in some parallel universe. The PIP de résistance is a performance improvement plan so devoid of detail it could double as a fortune cookie.

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Author image for Etai Eshet Etai Eshet
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  • But our former star employee has a plan of his own. The one we call the exit plan. Dusting off the resume, dodging the hiring freeze, and delighting in a departure so swift it leaves the boss blinking into the void, clutching his 14-day notice policy like a security blanket. 

  • "Ambushed by a PIP during my Annual Review"

    "I was with this company for four years. My boss was always a bit odd"
    via fizkes

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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  • I was with this company for four years. My boss was always a bit odd. I hate to call anyone stupid, but I genuinely don't know how else to describe him. He would
    via rr499
  • forget almost anything you told him right away, and even the simplest tasks had to be explained to him multiple times. I'm a patient person, so repeating
    via rr499
  • myself wasn't the issue. The problem was that he had no understanding of what my role involved, so the only way he could manage me was by asking
    via rr499
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  • Cheezburger Image 10501531136
    via PhotoEuphoria

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • endless questions about my projects until he found some minor flaw. Then he'd fixate on that instead of evaluating the overall quality of the work.
    via rr499
  • Because of this, his feedback was scattered and inconsistent. I don't think he ever formed his own opinion of my performance. Instead, he regularly asked other
    via rr499
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  • managers and coworkers for their thoughts and treated that as his feedback. Despite that, I never received below a "Fully Meets Expectations" rating in my annual
    via rr499
  • Cheezburger Image 10501530880
    via pixelshot

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • reviews. I credit that to the fact that I documented my weekly progress toward my goals and reviewed it with him every week.
    via rr499
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  • That changed during this year's review. He told me he was giving me a "Does Not Meet Expectations" and placing me on a 30-day PIP immediately. I was
    via rr499
  • stunned and heartbroken. I take a lot of pride in my work, and it was painfully obvious that he was making things up just to justify negative feedback. He was clearly shifting the goalposts. One of my
    via rr499
  • goals was to submit a certain number of safety observations. I exceeded that target, but he still failed me on it, claiming it wasn't enough.
    via rr499
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  • When I asked why none of this had ever come up in our weekly meetings, he admitted he hadn't seen any issues with my performance during the year. But
    via rr499
  • right before review season, he claimed he got negative feedback from coworkers and decided to use that instead. When I pressed
    via rr499
  • him for details, he was vague or described events that simply never happened.
    via rr499
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  • The PIP itself was the vaguest I'd ever seen, no metrics, no clear expectations, just a lot of empty language. I started applying for other roles immediately. Around
    via rr499
  • implemented a full hiring freeze due to tariffs. Thankfully, I got a great offer quickly and accepted it. Once my background check cleared, I put in a one-week
    via rr499
  • notice. Honestly, I wasn't even sure they deserved that much. I half expected to be walked out the same day. Later that day, I had a meeting with my manager.
    via rr499
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  • He looked genuinely surprised that I was leaving and had the audacity to say, "You know, industry standard is 14 days." I laughed and left the meeting.
    via rr499
  • The next week, I found out my role wouldn't be backfilled because of the freeze, and my manager would have to take over my responsibilities. My last few
    via rr499
  • days consisted of him frantically asking me how to do very basic tasks. I either told him I was too busy or gave vague answers. It felt amazing.
    via rr499
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  • Looking back, I can't say I was happy at that company. Many of my coworkers were toxic in their own ways, and I've never experienced that level of
    via rr499
  • dysfunction and incompetence anywhere else. I'm proud of the work I did, and I'm very glad I moved on, especially the way I did.
    via rr499
  • EDIT: Wow, thanks everyone for the feedback! I knew I had to find a new role as soon as I got the PIP, but it's reassuring to know I
    via rr499
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  • handled this correctly. The silent layoff scenario does seem to make sense the more I think about it. Multiple people put their
    via rr499
  • two weeks in around the same time I did. Turnover at this company is rather high, but I wonder if they were put in the same situation as myself.
    via rr499

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