Figured I’d post my experience being “performance coached” and then eventually accepting a severance offer as an L4 SWE at fb. My last day is June 4 About 2 months ago my manager told me that my performance was basically not up to par (had received MM (meets most) two halves already, and the current half was trending MM). Put me into “performance coaching”. The “coaching” however was basically “do the equivalent of EE (exceeds expectations) so that we get to MA (meets all) by end of the half”. Worked my ass off but according to my manager I didn’t perform at EE level, I’m a MM employee after all lol. Anyway I realize termination is likely imminent no matter how hard I push myself (and even if I did it seemed likely I’d be terminated anyway), so I opted for “mutual separation”. Getting 3 months of base salary in a lump sum (taxed like a bonus)+unused PTO bc by the time I leave I will have worked for 2 years+1 day and the # of months of base you get for severance is the number of years you’ve worked rounded up. Kudos to my HR rep who gave this knowledge to me and pushed my last day a little. Overall, pretty nice of fb to pay me ~$70k ($43k from base +23k saved PTO) (before taxes) for leaving. Sucks I have to give up my unvested shares which are hefty. To greener pastures TC 380k (rip) YOE 4.5
Expand on acronyms?
Done
MM = Met Most expectations MA = Met All EE = Exceeded expectations
I'm sorry this happened to you, but it's refreshing to see you remain calm and be a good sport about it. What plans next?
Take the summer off, meet girls, try starting my own thing, go back to work in the fall if I fail
Sounds fun, good luck!
So, what are you gonna do now? I guess 50k isn’t bad.
Thanks for sharing this, I just joined FB and good to hear about the "worst" case scenario and it is not as bad as I expected. Good luck on your next adventure!
The worst case scenario is that you get PIPed even before the first rating.
Is it really 100% performance related?
In my specific case according to my manager, yes. In general, no
In other words you got pushed out by your manager?
Why would FB offer severance package ? Just so they don’t need to go thru formal pip process ?
Beats me, they’d offer it if I got terminated as well. I just didn’t want to keep working my ass off for a carrot they probably wouldn’t even give me, and I wanted some dignity / control over my own separation
Everyone offers a severance package unless it's a policy-violation related termination. You can choose whether or not you want to accept it. If you do accept it, you need to sign documents stating you waive your rights to sue the company.
Thank you for sharing your story. I am confident that you will be able to boost your LC & System Design skills immensely during your 3 month-long paid vacation and your new opportunity will be even higher TC and better WLB!
Sorry to hear. Curious if there is anything you could've done differently from day 1 to avoid it. Did you get actionable feedback early?
Yeah I did, put a lot of effort in but didn’t meet my manager’s expectations
Was your manager Ex amazon 😂
Were you E5 at FB?
E4. Lucky stock growth+max offer at start
3 months base salary was >$50k at E4? That would put your base pay at $200k which is E5 territory. You must've gotten the absolute top of the range E4 package when you joined!
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Then enjoy your time off Better times ahead