I disagree. If my manager tells me (as you wrote) “your performance is not meeting expectations”, that’s plenty signal that either we are not on the same page (

I disagree. If my manager tells me (as you wrote) “your performance is not meeting expectations”, that’s plenty signal that either we are not on the same page (and we need to fix that), or that I need to get my performance up to the bar. If your manager gives you that feedback, they’ll then tell you specifics and come up with a plan. I don’t think this is “corporate speak” as you put it. We can formally give this process any name, but it doesn’t change anything.