Anyone ever heard of someone who survived a Chevron pip?
40 replies (most recent on top)
Are PIPs a field operator thing or low psg thing? I know what they are but I've literally never heard of anyone getting one. I'm mid career PE
@12k If you’re spending this much time tracking someone else’s performance, that says more about your insecurity than their capability. Focus on your own lane. Your interest in someone else’s exit is exactly why Chevron’s culture is so broken.
@123 I am not on a PIP nor am I near being PIPed. I'm asking because I believe someone I know may be on a PIP and I'm waiting for their exit because they never should have made it through the reorg. Seriously couldn't have happened to a more deserving person.
@111 asking questions like this would suggest you should plan your exit strategy. PIPs don’t have a set timeline. Could be 30 days, could be 90 days. The brutal truth is your time at Chevron is likely coming to an end.
PIPs are inbound, brace yallsselves
@10w yes, yes. I understand all that. But how long are you given to try to pass the PIP now? Is it 6 weeks? 90 days? Or what? I'm trying to gauge how long from PIP to exit if they don't pass. I don't know anyone that's been PIPed for sure but I have suspicions.
@yx PIP is a tool to mitigate risk of litigation due to termination. The success rate is a little better than a coin toss regardless if the employee is a low or high performer. If an employee is put on PIP the company has decided for one reason or another it’s time for them to leave. PIP anchored in the ranking system generates a continuous, soft layoff system without triggering WARN, or huge severance packages. Plenty of high performers are run off for politics, running out of runway due to salary, or advancement. All you have to do is check out the ExxonMobil page or LinkedIn to see what the future holds.
@y1 how long do you have to prove yourself to try to pass the PIP?
In the past yes a PIP was survivable but within the last 6 weeks the witch hunt is in full swing and PIP are being tossed out like beads at Mardi Gras. If you don’t agree and refuse to sign you are terminated on the spot.
@b0
your statement is true, our team has no direction at all. half the peeople are working on low value work just to look busy.
@ct
Based upon teh downvotes, you must have hit a nerve with the Chevron managers that are offended because you said most Chevron managers cannot implement a PIP.
@s0
I like the way you think, Brotha!
Chevron using PIPs for accountability is like a pilot relying on the emergency checklist during takeoff. If you’re already about to crash, the problem isn’t the checklist. It’s the cockpit.
And all the downvotes on legitimate questions and different opinions? That’s just proof people have become frogs in a boiling pot. So acclimated to dysfunction the steam feels like normal operating temperature.
Ask MKW, he got a 3...
@bw
I disagree with you, manager has (2) low perforrming friends in our team and they are being "coddled through" as you say, while he pummels another guy with a bruising all year and I can see this guy will probably end up on a PIP after 2026. The guy is actually smart but our manager has poor priorities and poor leadership skills.
In you work experieince, you may not experieinced this, but in my team unfortunately this is the norm. I told the guy to take the PIP, it will be the clearest goals anyone in our team has received in the past 5 years.
I worked a direct report through a PIP. Took a lot of time and effort. The next manager put them on another PIP spending no time working through a new issue. They never would have made it through a second PIP anyway. If you survive one (it’s possible), don’t backslide.
If you are a consistent low performer go to COE, you’ll either stay put and never get laid off or you’ll be promoted to a chapter manager or some role “developing” the workforce.
@bn I highly advise moving to a different manager. However, there’s less opportunity now that there are no pdcs. You might think about looking outside. They’re pushing you out.
I was put on a PIP for three years for insulting a very high up person in Chevron, who threw hands. If I'd have got hold of him it would be Rocky 7... It got washed away I got a PIP and it went quietly away. But I survived
@bx
Excellent feedback, I agree with the points.
I like this phrase because most Chevron managers do not have the time nor the skills to manage a PIP
“managers admit they lack the training to implement them effectively.”
@ay
The alternative is now forced attrition. Back in the day it was intended to help people get better.
@ar
Boss was a j3rk
@aj
A PIP should add always have SMART objectives. T is for time based, so if you have no time parameters someone made a mistake.
It would not supreme that a manager at Chevron did not write the objectives or the PIP well.
I had an inexperienced new boss that was just checking the box on his advancement. He rapidly started moving me towards a PIP. I told him I’ve had good reviews for the last 30 years until now. Maybe the problem isn’t with me. That ended the PIP.
lol. Your suggestion a PIP is coaching and help is like calling a subpoena “friendly advice”. Trolls will be trolls.
HBR’s most direct treatment of PIPs comes from its 2025 case study and commentary. The findings are blunt:
• PIPs rarely work — Only 15% of employees complete them successfully.
Most either get terminated (60%) or take stress‑related medical leave (25%) and never return.
• PIPs are perceived as punitive — Employees describe them as stigmatizing and demoralizing, and managers admit they lack the training to implement them effectively.
• They provide legal protection, not development — HBR notes that PIPs primarily serve as documentation for termination defense, not as a mechanism for improving performance.
• They damage trust and retention — The case highlights high turnover, stress leave, and financial cost associated with PIPs. EBSCO
• HBR recommends replacing PIPs with mentorship-based systems — The commentary suggests shifting to skill-building, coaching, and supportive development, though it acknowledges this requires cultural change and investment.
What leadership think tanks say (Center for Creative Leadership, Gartner, McKinsey, Deloitte)
Across leadership institutes, the consensus aligns with HBR:
- PIPs are outdated artifacts of compliance-driven HR
Think tanks argue PIPs emerged from industrial-era performance management and are misaligned with modern knowledge work.
- They trigger fear responses, not growth
Research on psychological safety (Amy Edmondson, CCL) shows that punitive mechanisms reduce learning, experimentation, and candor—exactly the opposite of what underperformance requires.
- High performers disengage when they see PIPs used poorly
Gartner’s talent research indicates that mismanaged accountability systems reduce team morale and increase voluntary attrition among strong contributors.
- Managers misuse PIPs because they lack coaching skills
McKinsey and CCL both emphasize that most managers are not trained in developmental coaching, so PIPs become check-the-box exercises.
- Better alternatives exist: continuous conversations + contextual diagnostics
Leadership think tanks recommend:
• Frequent, structured check-ins
• Joint problem diagnosis (systems, workload, clarity, capability)
• Coaching plans with measurable skill-building
• Removing stigma by treating performance gaps as shared system problems, not personal failings
@bv, No, that's BS. People hired as professionals in their fields should not have to be babied and coddled just to meet minimum requirements. You are no longer in the "everyone get's a trophy" environment, you are in the real world. PIP's literally are the unnecessary coaching that shouldn't be required. Giving you the heads up and extending the hand out.
You're welcome.
@bn if you had a good boss you would have never been on a PIP. Coaching, robust performance management consistently lead to better outcomes than the we-ponized hammer a PIP is today in corporations.
I did. And thrived until retirement.
A pip is required for those with a low rating. It is designed to address your deficiencies. If you have a good boss and follow the plan, you your rating will improve and you'll be ok. If you can't improve, you gotta go. I have seen people escape the PIP by moving to a different boss.
@ab being competent
Two employees I knew were on it and eventually terminated. General consensus is if you are on it is just a delay of the inevitable. Go check out the ExxonMobil page and you will see the future. We copied everything else ExxonMobil does.
how is anyone being PIP'ed in a time where we don't even know what the he-l to deliver
I was on a performance improvement plan and I met the goals and did fine. I needed to learn a few things to catch up but no big deal. That was a while back. I suppose it may be a little different now. What's the problem with being given a heads up on what you need to do to stay employed? Much better than the alternative.
I knew a team lead that was close to retiring who decided he was tired of complacency in his team so he put one of his ppl who was delivering “but not delivering their best” on a pip. The person met the pip so he put him on another one “to get him to do better”…
I don’t think it’s comparable to previous versions of the PIP process. I’ve seen people on PIPs for multiple years, but that was ages ago. Seems like now it will be nearly impossible to make it through.
What if you're on a PIP right now? Is that just a formality for a layoff or is it very likely to be survived since the PIP didn't come with end of year review?
Historically PIPs were very easy to survive. They were very prescriptive. Future PIPs will be a formality and the outcome predetermined. Its essentially an advanced notice of layoff.
What were you piped for?
Yes, several. Historically around 80% of people on a pip survive.