My Google PIP story

Maybe someone will recognize me because I’ve been open about this story. Either way, please don’t dox me. I’m hoping my path will help at least one person. It was pre-TK (current GCP ceo) and Google was a different place. I was a SWE in GCP. I’m no rockstar but not a dud too, imo. My management chain has these idiots from Microsoft and Amazon. It should’ve been a red flag but live-n-learn right? 3 of us went to our director about our teams poor charter, because our manager and skip were not listening. He solved nothing too but promised good projects. 1 month later, 4 out of 5 on the team got NI (needs improvement, lowest rating) and two of us got PIPs too. It was stressful. I asked the skip for more context, but he told me that Bay Area is big and I can find another job easily, and that he’ll find me wherever I go too (it was a veiled threat, imo). The context was all conjecture too. Anyway, I contacted HRBP, told them about this, cried a bit spontaneously and said I’m in therapy. The HRBP fast tracked my STD (short term disability for the non-USA) folks. I was given 3 months fully paid leave. In the first fortnight, I found a different team and HR handled this with kid gloves. I had to sign a document saying I wasn’t forced to change teams. Not a big deal. It worked out well. I also found out that the ex-skip was bad-mouthing us to the new team. He was promoted in the next cycle. So, I lodged a complaint and the HR didn’t do much. They might spoken to him but the internal investigations team has a bunch of “company is holy” pricks. I was at google for 5 years after this. And it was a good time. My lesson was to advocate for yourself, finding an alternative before it is needed, and to create a information overload with HR if you need their help. If they help, you’ll suffer less. Really! #google #mentalhealth #pip