A personal improvement plan is not a fun thing to be on :(. That said, I do wonder how much the perception of them is skewed by their lack of visibility -- of

A personal improvement plan is not a fun thing to be on :(. That said, I do wonder how much the perception of them is skewed by their lack of visibility -- of the cases where I have been aware of a PIP, the only one which was had any real visibility in the wider org was the one where the person ended up leaving the company. It's entirely plausible that my employer is one of the better ones, though. And even then, I've seen (what appeared to me to be) abuses. One of the things that can come out of a manager putting someone on a PIP is that it's actually the manager who is in the wrong. It takes a good HR team to recognise that, though.