- A woman who works in digital marketing was put on a performance improvement plan at a new job.
- Through the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, she was able to improve her performance, she said.
- She survived her PIP and tried to help the new recruits so they wouldn’t feel as isolated as she did.
This essay as told is based on a conversation with a US-based woman who works in digital marketing. She was put on a performance improvement plan several months after starting her new job. She had been made redundant from a previous position and did not expect to survive the PIP. However, the diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder helped her improve her concentration. She asked Business Insider to hide her identity because she didn’t want her story to make her employer’s training process look bad. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
I work in digital marketing. When I was placed on PIP, a lot of people told me to start looking for another job. Some said not to even fight the PIP because my bosses already had it in mind to fire me. Even recruiters and my friends who work in HR have said it.
But my situation was a little different. Most of the bosses are quite young. They’re my age – early 30s – and I think they really intended to improve me a little. They did exactly what the performance improvement plan is supposed to do, which is bring team members up to the standards they expect.
The problem I had was that my boss hired me and then went on maternity leave. Once I started, there was a period of several months where she was gone and I felt like I was left behind in the woods. I relied on my teammates to train me – people who didn’t have experience in this area. When my boss came back, she seemed frustrated that the two new hires – me and someone else – weren’t up to the task.
I thought it was unfair to be placed on PIP because of this, but I was used to losing my job. I’ve always had a lot of problems concentrating. However, during PIP I was diagnosed with ADHD, which I think is why I struggled at work at times.
I survived my PIP, but a coworker did not
Two of us were placed on PIP at the same time – both new people. Everyone else on the team had been there for four or five years. They ended up firing the other new team member. When they fired him, I thought I was on the chopping block too, although ultimately my colleagues told me he just didn’t meet PIP’s expectations.
The PIP meeting was the first time my employer formally stated its expectations and standards. How can you meet expectations if you don’t know what they are? I’ve heard things like, “You have to respond to customers within 24 hours.” Send meeting notes 30 minutes before a call. No one had ever said any of this.
I’ve heard that the more realistic the goals, the more successful a PIP can be. Ours are quite well defined and quite realistic. This included being online at 8 a.m. and having your camera on for meetings. These things were not announced but were easy to achieve.
A large part of my job involves meeting with clients. When my boss returned from maternity leave, she was on all my calls to supervise. Then she would send me notes with, “Here’s what I would have said.” It was the first time I had real feedback. Before he returned, my other workers kept watch. Everyone was just like, “Oh, good job on that call.” »
My two managers are very busy. Before my PIP, I felt like I had to ask my colleagues questions on calls. I didn’t want to send a message via Teams because I didn’t want any record of it. I didn’t want to feel like I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know what they expected of me.
After my PIP, we finally recruited two new recruits. I told my boss, “Here’s what went wrong. Here’s what new hires need to know to avoid being placed on a PIP. There was a lot of knowledge about the company that I hadn’t gleaned when she left. I felt like I had no one to turn to because I didn’t want to continue bothering my coworkers. We work remotely and I think in an office I would have had more opportunities to ask questions. I feel like I’ve been thrown to the wolves in some ways.
I just made sure new hires knew they could ask me anything at any time. I felt very alone during my PIP and I don’t want others to feel that way. I am a first generation college graduate. I was the first generation to work in a company. So I have no one to turn to when something like this happens.
ADHD medication helps me concentrate
ADHD medications help a lot. It helps me concentrate. Once I received my diagnosis and started learning more about ADHD, I felt like I had my whole life figured out. I remember being a teenager and I was a straight-A student. I had wanted to become a doctor, but I thought, “I can’t handle this.” I didn’t know I had attention deficit disorder. The diagnosis and medication were a real game changer for me.
When I was put on PIP, I was in crisis mode. I was considering a career change. I was thinking about becoming an EMT. Random things. But I said to myself: let me get into this work first and give it 110%. At the time, I didn’t have an ADHD diagnosis.
During the PIP, I was never sure that I would survive it. I was getting messages from my bosses like, “Good job. You are aware of things. Everything they said was positive, but because of what I had heard about PIPs, I expected to be fired.
Then after my diagnosis, I took my medication every day and worked around the clock. I was very vocal and transparent with both of my bosses about what I was doing because we had weekly check-ins for the PIP.
But it was difficult to know what to disclose. On a call, I was very hesitant to talk about it, but I said, “I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and I know it affects my performance. I apologize if there are any gaps. I told them I was taking medication that was really helping me. They said, “Thank you so much for telling us. We’re really glad you talked to us about this. We wish you’d said something sooner because we could work out some accommodations.” It ended up being positive for me to say that, but I took a gamble because it can also be used against you.
It’s not the friendliest office. It’s not the most transparent management. I didn’t feel like I had a relationship with one of my bosses until I met her in person. Then she ended up apologizing for the PIP and saying that after having her baby she had postpartum depression and was going through a lot and needed the team to be 100% because it l would help too.
I didn’t have the last PIP meeting. They just sent an email saying I passed and we wouldn’t have the recordings and that everything was fine. And they copied HR. I felt very relieved. But I still felt tired and needed to take things slowly. You must always maintain the standard they set.
The PIP process, overall, has been positive – providing so much transparency for the first time. Now I know I can go to my bosses and say, “Hey, I can’t refill my medications because of a shortage. I’m sorry if you have to remind me of anything. Feel free to be harder on me during this.”
Overall, I now feel more job security. They even opened new accounts for me.
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