When a company hires you into a position, they hope that you will be working there for at least a few years; otherwise, it is a waste of time and money to get you properly trained.

What would you do if your boss found out that you were planning on going to grad school soon, even though you just started at your job a few months ago?

That is what happened to the person in this story, so his boss is putting him on a performance improvement plan and will likely fire him as soon as possible.

The teacher is upset about this, even though they would have to quit to attend grad school anyway. I can see why the manager is upset. They just hired someone on, and they are already looking at leaving. Read on, get all the details, and see what you think about it.

My boss found out that I was planning on going to Grad school and is now trying to put me on a PIP

Pretty much what the title states. I’ve been accepted to a handful of grad school programs in my field and am planning on starting at one this fall.

You would think that management would be happy that he is pursuing higher education.

I had talked to two of my coworkers about it, but had not told my boss yet because I have not yet enrolled in a program so at this moment I’m not “going” until I do.

I found out via text from one of my two coworkers that I had spoken to about my grad school acceptance that my boss knew about my grad school plans and then immediately got an email from my boss asking for me to meet in her office in half an hour.

Wow, what is her problem? Why is she mad that he is going to grad school?

In our meeting she immediately talked about how she had been disappointed in my performance for the last month and that she was recently informed that I had “accepted a position at a grad school.”

She then painted this picture that I was not a good fit. She told me my two options were two either resign (which she then monologued for about 5 minutes how this would be the right choice), or alternatively she would contact HR and schedule a meeting to put me on a PIP.

This is clearly not actually about his performance.

I then asked her where my performance was lacking to the point of being on a PIP. I reminded her that I have completed all my tasks on time and have never once missed an assignment.

Her response was effectively that I don’t ask for extra work to do when I’m not busy. I then asked her if she has felt this way for over a month (I’ve only been in this role for 2+ months now and am still technically in training) why hasn’t she addressed this earlier.

I don’t think this lady wants the issue to go to HR.

She didn’t have a response for that question and instead reiterated my two options.

I told her I would be happy to stay in the role and take the meeting with HR. Which she seemed not pleased with. I then reiterated to her that as my supervisor that if she felt that I was not doing enough work in the role it was her responsibility to assign me more tasks to complete.

Can you be put on a performance improvement plan for not going above and beyond?

She was certainly not pleased with my retort and started talking about how employees should be motivated to go above and beyond in their role and that is the expectation she has for my team.

I am already very overqualified for this role and my pay certainly does not reflect that. So, I have had no plans to look for extra work especially when I commute via bus 2-3 hours each day to this position.

This is correct, PIPs are just a step in the firing process, most of the time.

The meeting with HR has not been scheduled yet but I imagine it’ll happen at some point this week.

From my understanding PIPs are just a legal formality to pave the path to terminate you disguised as a way to improve performance.

Ok, so he is in a pretty good situation, regardless.

Usually they’re 30, 60, or 90 days in length. Fortunately I plan to quit this job in ~60 days anyway for grad school, so it likely won’t effect me much.

If it’s a 30 day PIP then I expect to be fired in a little over a months time and I’ll lose out on ~4 weeks of pay, otherwise we’ll see what happens.

It is odd that this person is already planning on quitting, even though they have only been in the role a short time. This reason alone could be why the manager is upset.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an IT department who keeps receiving tickets for a company that was previously spun off.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

You really can’t trust anyone at work.

The manager is just playing the game.

This is an important lesson to learn.

I agree, make them fire you.

Document everything. It will help protect you.

Never talk about things you don’t want your boss to know at work. Your coworkers will tell your manager and get you in trouble. In this case, I don’t know why he is that upset that this is happening since he is planning on quitting soon anyway.

That being said, the manager would have never found out about it if he hadn’t been talking about it to people at work. Hopefully, this person will learn his lesson, though.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a bus driver who is sick and tired of covering everyone else’s weekend shifts.