Have you ever been put on a performance improvement plan? 

Performance improvement plans are the bane of the corporate employee’s existence. You dread the idea of being put on one, and you dread having to put someone on one. It’s never the sign of something great. There are probably going to be some hard feelings, no matter what’s going on. Nobody wants to be told that they’re doing a bad job. People also don’t usually like to be ambushed, unless it’s for a surprise party. Even then, just give me a heads up. I’d much prefer that. But you certainly don’t want to be surprised by a performance improvement plan. That would make you feel pretty disrespected at your company. That should be a last resort, not a first resort. You should have some idea that it’s coming so you can mentally prepare yourself. That’s not what happened here, though. This employee was blindsided by their boss, and it totally backfired. This was the last thing that the boss expected, and it shook him off course. But at the end of the day, the ball was in the employee’s court, and he wasn’t going to let that go.