I'm surprised to hear that! I was under the impression that often when people are fired, they get little to nothing, except perhaps a token payment in exchange for some agreement to waiving rights to pursue litigation, or a non-disparagement agreement.
PIP is a performance improvement plan, whereby they come up with documentation required to dismiss a person without running afoul of affirmative action and other wrongful termination suits.
Firing for cause is something else. Like, stealing from the company. Or punching a coworker, disclosing trade secrets to the press, failing a cocaine drug test, or deliberately violating workplace conduct rules. Poor performance is not a cause, and failing a PIP does not lead to firing for cause.
People really overestimate the scope of “wrongful termination” in the US where almost every state says you can fire someone for almost any reason or no reason as long as it isn’t a protected class.
And did you read my write up about how PIPs work at Amazon?
You’re heavily incentivized to press “Leave Amazon” button when they send you the link.
The chance of making it through a PIP is almost 0 - I read some of the internal Slack channels and I know from my own experience.
Nothing you've said in this comment contradicts my opinion that firing for cause is different than PIP. Not even the fact that PIPs are not designed to be survived. Or that you will be fired after failing one.
