PIP, resign, settlement - what's the best option for the future work reference?

[pcboo]

Hi - just wondering if anyone can help me.

I'm being put on a Performance Improvement Plan at work next week. I've been in a senior position in a financial service company for just under two years.

With everything happening in life, I'd rather leave and prioritise self-care. My job impacts my mental health and my family negatively. The workload is ridiculous + unrealistic expectations. Chances are committed to PIP won't lead to a good outcome.

Just wondering what would happen to my HR work reference if;

• Commit to PIP and being dismissed as a result (not preferred!)
• Resign before agreeing to PIP (i.e. still go to the PIP meeting but decide won't progress on)
• Ask for a settlement after the PIP meeting (and if not, I'm resigning anyway but have 3 -month notice period, so I'd rather find a way to leave early)
• Commit to PIP but resign mid-way

I don't think personal work references are in financial services anymore (I moved around a few times and was never asked for one), but I've never seen the HR official reference myself. Do they mention how I left my previous work in detail and how this affects my future work references?

I'm sorry. I meant to say my employer offers PIP for all employees, even those with less than two years of service.

I am worried that my notice period is 3 months, but PIP is only 1.5 months. I suspect the chance of settlement is slim. This makes me wonder whether I should resign before the first PIP meeting or wait until after the meeting.

Is there an opportunity to discuss the PIP before agreeing to it. You may then get the opportunity to discuss the unrealistic options. If so, I’d do that and try and get it over the two year barrier.

If they offer a 6 week salary tax free payment and immediate severance with an agreed reference that’s much better than 6 weeks of awful depressing pip and the resulting dismissal.

If you aren't under financial pressure for your job and have already decided that you want to leave, the best way to preserve a clean record is to tender your resignation with a request for the HR dept to issue a bland reference to any future employer.

the likelihood they will be so vindictive as to scupper your chances of future employment are slim, and to @prh47bridge good point, employers nowadays don't want to get involved in the legal hassle surrounding references so are more than likely to give a bland reference. Whilst ideally you'd want that commitment enshrined in a legal agreement, your less than 2 year service isn't likely to give you that, but if you've done nothing massively wrong, I don't think it will matter, so I wouldn't worry about it.

if you're taking a career break anyway, it will be good to have some daylight between this employment and your next. Take the time away to recharge and see a new perspective.

You mentioned that e PIP was a surprise- my solicitor advised that that should never be the case. Does your employer have a PIP/performance policy? Did they follow it? I’m just wondering if you can get some leverage to ask for a settlement.

I was embarrassed for my ex employer ( to an extent- I was also pretty happy after the way they’d treated me) when my solicitor pointed out how little they had stuck to their own strict policies. My happiest moment was the day ( left I think they were assuming I wasn’t checking email by then) and I saw an email sent from HR to the whole company laying out what a manager’s responsibilities were to their teams , and every point related back to my grievance.

My case they said they were going to close it as a successful PIP before Christmas . I never had the luxury of soft PIP or anything.
basically a new manager, 3 months in the door, who does not know my area of expertise.
it’s difficult as they can’t relate to what I say when trying to defend myself as they don’t know the business well enough, add 1 and 1 to make 3 and pre judge you’ve done something wrong
@daisychain01 what do you do when they haven’t stuck to policy by not telling me one way or another whether I’ve been successful (pip period ended a few weeks ago), they only verbally said it was extended for no reason? I’ve been at the company over 2 years! I was very successful under my previous manager and no warnings!

I wish I could. Regarding the surprise mentioned, it was the outcome of an informal development plan leading to PIP rather than them not following the procedure. Feedback from the regular catch-ups appeared fine, but the feedback at the end of the period was not. I would probably turn up to PIP defending myself that the feedback wasn't helpful and misleading (even though I don't intend to stay anyway).

Thinking of you, Good luck OP with the meeting, when does it take place?

Thank you. Supposed to be this week but it's been moved to next Monday.

In regulated industries that absolutely wouldn’t be enough.

Hi @pcboo , good luck with the meeting this week.

I hope whatever you decide, works for you. I can imagine its very stressful, thinking of you x

Hi OP, how are you doing? Did you resign in the end ? X

Hi @Foreverhope1, yes I did. Sorry haven’t checked this post for a while. I went through the meeting and then resigned the day after. Still serving notice for the next few months but feeling a lot of weights off my shoulders already. Looking forward to taking the time to relax/reset. Thanks for your kind words. It truly means something. X