Yes, sounds like a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) which usually means they want you out but need documentation of you not meeting an arbitary KPI.
HR is never your friend.
HR is never your friend.
But the moment you walk out that door, start resuming, calling old contacts, and do anything to get a new job.
PIP is literally just a formality HR goes through to let you go eventually, and is just an axx covering move by the HR/company. When you are called into PIP, just consider yourself as let go.
edit: And I would NOT feel any gratitude for the company that they are somehow paying your salary even though you are pretty much an ex-employee. They are simply doing PIP only to cover their bottom.
edit 2: I don't know when this trend started, but HR transformed
BEFORE
It kept list of employees, made sure pay checks were handed out, had new hires fill out forms, handle lay off.
NOW
It sends emails about good sounding fun activities, request for filling out surveys, etc.
What really bugs me is, all the surveys (we want to hear from you so we can do better for you as a company), activities is just a smoke screen to not pay employees more.
Do you know how to make an employee feel happier? Pay more money. You know, the same thing CEO/major-shareholders/owners also like to get more of.
Monthly personal goals, sprints, burndown charts. Management has you agreeing to meet specific targets and performance goals. I can only see it getting worse in businesses that are happy to churn staff.
The surveys are insidious and just a way to gauge if there are people to hunt out and get rid of. Never answer one truthfully - tick the boxes and move on unless you have your exit already planned.
And we need more people to say just give me more pay - too much talk of work/life balance and employee perks. Where's the value of employee perks to my wife and kids? They'd rather more money to do things as a family.
This is a dangerous POV and is very wrong. A “person in HR” might be your friend “right now”, but HR is never your friend. HR is there to protect the company. All those things listed later in your post are there to protect the company. It might seem like a nuance, but it’s a very important nuance that if you stepped back (like the person in the source article did about a different situation) and thought about, you’d understand.
For what it's worth, being a cofounder of an HR tech startup I work closely with and know a lot of HR professionals, my fiance has an HR background, and our academic advisors we work with are doing some great research in the field. Many companies just don't partake in the newer emerging strategic HR practices yet and continue the stigma.
Standard corporation has lazy, useless HR department that is there to hire you (with minimal effort on their side), fire you, and stuff mentioned above.