Performance-improvement plans in tech: 4 Google and Amazon employees share what happened after they were put on PIP

5 former employees from Amazon and Google share their stories. mathisworks

• Workers who were put on performance-improvement plans described how it affected them.
• One ex-Google employee said he knew he wouldn’t be able to ride out the PIP.
• A former Amazon employee said they developed PTSD from the demanding work.

In the tech world, one term often strikes fear in employees: performance-improvement plan.

In theory, a PIP is a tool for employers to address and improve an employee’s performance in the workplace. But it often means an employee is at risk of losing their job.

A former Amazon employee was put on PIP and lost a $110,000 deposit on a house

A former Amazon Web Services employee thought things were going well before he was put on a performance-improvement plan called Pivot.

While he still had his job, he and his wife decided to build a bigger house for their large family.

He said that one day his manager messaged him on Slack saying that he wasn’t improving at his job and that he’d be put on the PIP. The former employee said he felt that the plan’s time constraints were too tight.

“To me, if you’re going to let people go because you overhired or because of financial reasons or something, say it,” he said. “So I lost my job. I was building a house. I lost my house because I couldn’t close on that. I lost $110,000. My wife, still, she’s like, ‘What did you do?'”

In an email to Business Insider, an Amazon spokesman disputed the former employee’s account and said it “does not represent the experience of the vast majority of our employees who regularly meet or exceed expectations.”

“For the small number of employees who don’t, we provide coaching and opportunities to help them improve,” the spokesman said. “If they’re unable to do that, then we may have to discuss them leaving the company. While that may be a difficult experience for the employee involved, it’s hardly unusual for a company of our size, and would be expected from any business that’s focused on consistently delivering for its customers.”

Grigory Yakushev was fired from Google after being put on a PIP

Yakushev. Grigory Yakushev

Yakushev was fired from Google eight years ago after a steep drop in productivity. He said he thought he’d burned out but was later given a diagnosis of depression.

“After a week on the PIP, it was quite obvious to me that I wasn’t going to be successful,” Yakushev said last year. “I was spending my day staring at the screen. I even saw with my inner eye the code I needed to type, but somehow I couldn’t force myself to do that. I told my manager that chances were I wouldn’t make it through the PIP.”

Yakushev said he later realized he should’ve seen a doctor and gotten help sooner.

A Google representative contacted last year for comment on Yakushev’s story declined to comment.

An Amazon employee said Amazon placed some employees in a coaching program called Focus

A marketing manager at Amazon described getting emails from their manager saying they were underperforming and needed coaching. Later, they said, a coworker pointed out that the manager might’ve been referring to a coaching program for underperformers called Focus.

“As a marketer, I admire so much about the company and its potential and history,” the worker said early this year. “But right now, I’m feeling dissatisfied and disillusioned. I feel like Amazon is not taking care of its people.”

They said that based on comments about the Focus program on Blind, they thought people in it either quit or subjected themselves to ridicule and shame.

“I don’t want some completely arbitrary, terrible, and shady program dominating my situation,” they said. “That, to me, sounds demeaning as hell. I’m not standing for that.”

An Amazon representative didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent early this year.

A former Amazon HR staffer said they were disgusted at what they saw with a PIP

A former human-resources staffer at Amazon placed on a PIP said they developed PTSD from their demanding work.

“I played along, and I’m good at playing along when I have to be. So then the money is in my account,” they said recently. “That next day, I called my manager and I told them I was resigning.”

They said their manager blew a gasket. “I said, ‘Look, you gave me no choice. You put this threat against me. I’m not just going to sit there and wait for it to be dependent on you. You get to make the call whether I make it or not.’

“My manager was super mad and asked me when I was leaving. I said two weeks,” the former employee added. “They were incredulous that I wasn’t giving them more respect.”

An Amazon representative disputed the former employee’s account, saying it “does not represent the experience of the vast majority of our employees.”