Manager doesn't want to put good employee on a performance plan just for one mistake, instead, he changes the approach: 'About a month in, the same director who wanted the PIP started asking me why the employee's performance had improved so much'

Author image for María Cetra
María Cetra • Writer
Oct 10, 2026 6:00 PM EDT

You always have to push towards what you believe is the best choice.

No answer is ever that clear. You may think you know what you are doing, that you a 100% believe with your way of acting, but that isn't true. We think we know what we are doing, but we are mostly playing it by ear. We do what we think is best, but that doesn't mean that it is. We are drivers trying to drive through the fog; we can't see anything, but we trust our instincts to do the best we can. There is no path that we can see and follow; it's just our decision-making skills and luck what's guiding us through the world and in our lives. 

Is funny how, without knowing for a fact that what we do is correct, we still fight for what we think and believe is the best option. It may not be, but it is fighting against our instincts not to follow our gut to what we think is the best path. That's what happened with this manager. He wasn't a thousand percent sure that he was doing the right thing by changing the alarming performance review into a normal chat to fix the error. But he did it anyway. Was he sure that it was going to turn out as it did? Of course not, but he had a feeling that this was the best way to work with this employee, and it paid off. 

That's why we need to trust ourselves; we need to follow our instinct, fight for what we believe is the right path. Nobody knows for a fact that what they are doing is okay. Life is doubt and error, but sometimes we hit a jackpot. And you will never discover what you are capable of until your believe in yourself and your decision-making skills to mark your path. Life is full of mysteries; don't let it stay like that, see what you can do and try it. After all, the most important part of life is to stay true to yourself, and no, this doesn't apply particularly to managers, just to everyone. 

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  • 01
    This happened a few months ago and I still think about it. One of my team members made a pretty big mistake on a project. Nothing catastrophic, but it cost us some time and the client wasn't happy. My director immediately wanted a PIP. I honestly didn't think it made sense. The employee had been
    via Major_Bag3934
  • 02
    A manager and an employee having a 1 on 1. Actor performance of story events.
    via Docusign

    A manager and an employee having a 1 on 1. 

    Actor performance of story events. 

  • 03
    with us for years, normally did. good work, and this was the first serious issue I'd had with them. I told my director that putting someone on a formal PIP over one bad project was going to send the wrong message. He basically told me I was being too soft. So I agreed to a formal improvement plan, but I made it very clear to the employee that
    via Major_Bag3934
  • 04
    the goal was to actually fix the problem, not just build a case against them. We met every week. We went through what went wrong, what they needed help with, and what I expected going forward. About a month in, the same director who wanted the PIP started asking me why the employee's performance had improved so much.
    via Major_Bag3934
  • 05
    I just said, "Because we actually worked on the problem instead of treating the person like the problem." That shut the conversation down pretty quickly. The employee is still on my team and honestly doing some of their best work now. The whole thing made me realize how differently leadership and
    via Major_Bag3934
  • 06
    managers can look at the same situation. Sometimes leadership sees a risk that needs to be removed. As the manager, you're the one who actually has to figure out whether the person is the risk or whether something in the situation needs fixing. Not saying PIPs are bad. Sometimes they're absolutely necessary. But I've become a lot more
    via Major_Bag3934
  • 07
    careful about using them just because someone had one bad stretch.
    via Major_Bag3934
  • 08
    A woman and a man having a job meeting. Photo is a representation of scenes.
    via Amy Hirschi

    A woman and a man having a job meeting. 

    Photo is a representation of scenes. 

  • 09
    Sole Scream This reminds me of the except from How To Win Friends and Influence People: "Bob Hoover, a famous test pilot and frequent performer at air shows, was returning to his home in Los Angeles from an air show in San Diego. As described in the magazine Flight Operations, at three hundred feet in the air, both engines suddenly stopped. By deft maneuvering he
    via Sole Scream
  • 10
    managed to land the plane, but it was badly damaged although nobody was hurt. Hoover's first act after the emergency landing was to inspect the airplane's fuel. Just as he suspected, the World War II propeller plane he had been flying had been fueled with jet fuel rather than gasoline. Upon returning to the airport, he asked to see the mechanic who had serviced his airplane. The young man was sick with the agony of his mistake. Tears streamed down his face as Hoover approached. He had just cause
    via Sole Scream
  • 11
    loss of a very expensive plane and could have caused the loss of three lives as well. You can imagine Hoover's anger. One could anticipate the tongue-lashing that this proud and precise pilot would unleash for that carelessness. But Hoover didn't scold the mechanic; he didn't even criticize him. Instead, he put his big arm around the man's shoulder and said, "To show you I'm sure that you'll never do this again, I want you to service my F-51 tomorrow."
    via Sole Scream
  • 12
    RLLCCR You didn't push back. You did what they said and instead of citing the correct reason for improvement (they were always a good employee), you instead affirmed that it was a good idea to put them on an improvement plan and that the upper managers incorrect perception was valid.
    via RLLCCR
  • 13
    EverySingleMinute I don't get the mentality of putting everyone on a PIP for every little thing. People make mistakes and I guarantee that executive has made mistakes as well. Stuff happens. It is not surprising at all that the executive had no clue how the employee's work improved.
    via EverySingleMinute
  • 14
    Flipsii So... Instead of going through a PIP you went through a PIP? What am I missing here?
    via Flipsii
  • 15
    Iminurcomputer It sounds like you kind of did what PiP would do? Im not sure but I think a PiP is a general term and the way in which you go about improving an employees performance is entirely subjective based on many unique factors. It just sounds like you did a PiP without calling it that.
    via Iminurcomputer
  • 16
    Fear_Galactus I may just be jaded from what I've seen over the years but PIP has never been used to improve performance and is instead used as a battering ram if and when they want to use it. Ive personally never seen a PIP not end in a termination or resignation. Good on you for doing the right thing.
    via Fear_Galactus
  • 17
    hankmoody699 If, as a leader, you assume that people are the problem for most issues, you will fail as a leader. 95%+ of all employees want to do a good job. Most of the time the problem is process, not people. I was a leader for about 47 years. I have a few examples where there were attempts to fire someone because of a mistake. I would say they were probably significant mistakes, maybe
    via hankmoody699
  • 18
    even justifying firing. My favorite is a young lady who was hired and 6 months into her employment, HR discovered she had misrepresented something on her application and said they were terminating her. After reviewing this girl's performance in the 6 months I realized we had a wonderful, talented, hard working, person working for us and I was not going to let that happen to her. Today, that young lady is an awesome manager. She doesn't work for me anymore, but I lean on her to take care
    via hankmoody699
  • 19
    of things for me to this day. And I'm retired. I have also seen people get terminated where I knew that, while they may have deserved that, they also deserved another opportunity. I helped them get jobs and actually hired one as a manager. And again, she is doing a great job. We all make mistakes in life and sometimes we just need to see the good and the potential in someone
    via hankmoody699

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employee performance review good boss mistake
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