Reading a lot of posts about PIP worries or what to do when put on a PIP so I thought I'd share my story, maybe some will find it helpful as I actually passed the PIP. TLDR: 1. Don't trust your manager, they don't have your best interest at heart, even if they say they do. 2.Get everything in writing and actively fight to make sure all your work is prioritized properly. 3. Hold managers accountable, if they miss any evaluation criteria or any meeting, immediately go straight to your skip or HR. 4. Work hard, the goals they set won't be easy. Long story: This was about 4 years ago now. I was an SDE1 at Amazon and had been at the company for just over a year. Similar story to most, shitty manager, didn't feel like a good fit on the team, tried to change teams once but the manager blocked it, he lied to me and told me I couldn't change teams within my first year (found out from HR in my exit interview that wasn't true). I won't pretend like I was a great performer, I'm sure I wasn't performing up to the bar, but my manager was also garbage, gave terrible/shallow feedback, was crap technically, and was just riding the wave of an amazing team of ICs that he inherited. Anyway so I get put on a dev plan, I thought I did well on it, manager said every week I was green against the goals and then suddenly the week before the end I'm red and I get put on a PIP. We set out the goals and I sign them. The great lie that managers tell you when they put you on a PIP is that they're trying to help you grow, they're doing everything in their power to keep you here and it's just on you to deliver. Don't believe it. I'm not sure why I didn't just immediately look for another job at this point, I think part of me just wanted to prove that I was good enough to stay. Spite has always been a good motivator for me too and I really started to hate my manager. This is where it gets really crappy though. He didn't show up to any of the evaluation criteria on my PIP. I did a presentation to my org on a tech we used, he was in another meeting. I had a big project to deliver on my plan, he de-prioritized it on every Sprint planning and put me on something else. He'd reschedule or just miss 1 on 1s all together. It was so bad that when my PIP finally ended HR said we didn't have enough data to make a decision because he couldn't give enough feedback on the parts...I ended up having to do an entirely new PIP. Yep TWO back to back PIPs. Now I was even more motivated to stick it to this guy. At this point I had learned my lesson, I had 0 trust in my manager and I knew that as long as he was running the show I'd get fired for sure. I immediately booked a meeting with my skip level, explained to him all the good work I had done during the first pip and begged him to remove my current manager from my second pip. Lucky for me my current manager had just gotten promoted and I had a new manager who had just started about 2 weeks before my first pip ended. We agreed to have her take over the PIP. After that it was actually pretty smooth sailing, we did the same thing, set out agreed upon goals, I executed against them, got some great feedback, worked pretty hard but was actually having fun with it. Who knew that getting good quality feedback on your work at a regular cadence could be so rewarding? This woman to this day is the best manager I ever had. Few months later she brought me cupcakes and congratulated me on passing the PIP. Sadly, not long after that my new manager was moved to another team and I got the old guy back. That's when I decided it was time to start looking, I couldn't stand to have him be my manager again and he proved many times in the coming months to be shittier than I had even thought he could be. Anyway, I ended up getting an offer with 75% more TC and left as regretted attrition 😉. Wrote some pretty terrible feedback for my manager and sent it to my skip. The Truth is that with the right manager I actually was able to grow a ton from the PIP and came out stronger for it. Unfortunately from my first experience, I learned that you can do everything on that plan and still get screwed because your manager is just trying to fire you. It's an incredibly stressful experience and one that I wouldn't recommend anyone to take. I passed but from what I know, most don't. There's no big prize for passing, you just get to keep your job. Unless you're spiteful like I was, my advice would be to just take the severance and find a better job. If you're on a PIP already, good luck, be vocal, get all your work done and don't be afraid to hold the people who control your fate accountable to do their part too. #amazon #pip TC: 313k
I think when I'm ready for retirement I'll just only do work during PIPs. You have inspired me OP.
🖕 to the manager
Awesome story. Which location of Amazon?
Good morning, Amazon HR.
congrats champ.
forgot blind rule? tc or gtfo. please do the need 😀
Good for you, but that was too much drama. Should just take the severance package and leave. You're marked as URA anyway, why fight so hard to get less money.
Just move on man. I wonder if Amazon builds secure services with people dumping code under constant pressure of pip
I'll just not work for Amazon and get paid more lol
This☝️
Amazon stocks been flat as hell throughout this boom market whats even the point of working there anymore without stock growth
Thanks for sharing, and glad you made it to greener pastures.
HR always side with mgr even if you have data points. That's MAJOR problem. Amazon is a managers' paradise. It's full of incompetent POS managers. Throwing their reports under the bus to make their paycheck.
Aren't managers piped?
I haven't seen or heard in 6 years
Nice story.