I was unexpectedly placed on a performance improvement plan about a month and a half ago. This came just a couple months after I had expressed grievances about my boss gossiping about associates In the workplace and also brought up to their boss the fact that I was forced to go back in the office five days a week right after I started last year despite my offer letter saying I would be remote, really bothered me and felt like a bait and switch. My Pip was full of mistakes I made starting around June, which is when I expressed the grievances. Basically, I’m starting to feel like this pip was planned. I’m meeting with HR on Friday and I’m not sure if I should be honest about the fact that I am feeling this way.
The PIP is causing me a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety. I’ve been throwing up before work every day, I started seeing a psychiatrist and a therapist last month to deal with the stress. We have had many people resign recently in our department so on top of the extra projects I’m having to do for the Pip, I am doing double to work I normally do to make up for the lack of labor. On top of all of this, my manager is coming down on me extremely hard, responding to every email with every single tiny thing I did wrong. It is starting to feel like bullying. I feel like I can’t do anything right and that I am being set up to fail. I can’t sleep at night and I have stopped eating. I am trying so hard at work to get all of my work done and I have been doing the best I can but my boss comes up with a negative response and/or a mistake I made to everything.
Even though I hit my numbers this past month and was told that I was improving, I was told my PIP was going to extend another 30 days this past week, and it was my last chance to improve before being terminated. Huh?? The things on the PIP are very vague like “ make more recommendations” , “participate in office small talk”… what??! It just seems so silly. I thought I was really improving the past 30 days so I was shocked when it was extended and now I’m being threatened with termination. I am under so much stress. I have been feeling like I have no choice but to quit but I will not be able to pay my bills as I am single and live alone in an expensive city. When I meet with HR tomorrow, is there anything I can say to see if we can come up with some sort of exit strategy where I am let go with severance or at the very least paid through the end of the year and can apply for Unemployment? I don’t know how much longer I can do this.