I completely and intuitively understand what this employee is reacting to, and I think the it is hard to articulate why the approach his managers took is not gr

I completely and intuitively understand what this employee is reacting to, and I think the it is hard to articulate why the approach his managers took is not great. In this situation the managers could have gotten the same exact result without making the employee feel humiliated. Something along the lines of "stuff is falling through the cracks, let's do a meeting to touch base once a week so we can make sure everything is going well." In those once a week meetings, the managers could provide positive and negative feedback in a balanced way. However, once you've told an employee they are being "a prima Donna" and basically you need fixing, every meeting is another denigrating experience. That whole PIP idea makes sense for a paper trail justifying termination, but is otherwise terrible for morale. Edit: in all relationships, professional or personal, try to keep your feedback specific and impersonal. "We need a reply to emails within 24 hours" is much better than "you have a communication problem." "Don't yell at John during meetings." Is way better than "you lose your temper too often." Etc.