Unfortunatey, formal PIP is an absolute necessity in countries with strong labor protection laws (i.e., most of Western Europ). You cannot easily fire someone w

Unfortunatey, formal PIP is an absolute necessity in countries with strong labor protection laws (i.e., most of Western Europ). You cannot easily fire someone without a big fat dossier that shows you tried, or else the judge or labor authority will simply tell you to try harder. That also makes them even more horrible and useless. Once you start going down this route, everyone knows what the score is, and it's extremely demoralizing. Nobody takes them seriously, and employers often stack the deck so there is no other possible outcome but failure. Which is why many companies choose to offer a shitload of severance pay in exchange for the employee voluntarily "resigning".