You Just Got Put on a Performance Improvement Plan
Before you do anything, read this.
You're not spiraling. You're responding normally to something genuinely destabilizing.
The floor dropped out. You're replaying every meeting from the last three months. You're wondering if you missed something obvious, if everyone already knew, if this is somehow entirely your fault.
It isn't. And this isn't over.
A Performance Improvement Plan feels like a verdict. It isn't. It's a documented process — and documentation cuts both ways. What happens next depends almost entirely on what you do with the next 30 days. And right now, you probably don't know what that is.
That's what this course is for.
Who Built This?
My name is Megan.
I'm workplace exit strategist and licensed New York attorney who has personally navigated multiple. workplace exits including a lawsuit, a layoff, a toxic manager, and a resignation. I built Work Reboot because when I went looking for real help, I found nothing useful.
I'm not here to tell you everything will be fine. I'm here to give you your chess moves back.
Most people on a PIP can't afford an employment attorney, and generic HR advice won't tell you the truth. I built this because that gap shouldn't exist.
What You'll Walk Away With
By the end of Controlled Burn, you will:
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Understand what a PIP actually is — legally, operationally, and strategically — and what it isn't
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Know exactly what to look for in your PIP document and what those details mean for your options.
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Have a clear framework for deciding what you want: stay and fight, improve and see, plan your exit, or negotiate a departure.
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Know what HR is actually thinking — and how to use that understanding to your advantage.
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Have a specific, tactical plan for the next 30 days depending on the path you choose.
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Stop making decisions from panic and start making them from strategy.
What's in the Course
An introduction and 6 content modules detailing all the things you should be thinking about during this critical moment. Modules include:
Module 0: Managing Feelings
The first thing you need to hear. This module names the shame spiral directly, normalizes it, and reframes what's actually happening. You have more options than you think.
Module 1: What a PIP Actually Is
Most people have no idea what a PIP is designed to do legally, operationally, and strategically. This module explains the mechanics: what HR's role actually is, and what 'successful completion' really means in practice.
Module 2: Reading Your PIP
A tactical, hands-on walk through the four things that matter in any PIP document: the specific metrics, the timeline, the success criteria, and what happens at the end. You'll leave with a framework you can apply to your own document immediately.
Module 3: The Magic Wand Question
Module 4: What HR is Actually Thinking
Module 5:
Protecting Yourself
Right Now
Module 6:
Executing
Your Strategy
Before you decide what to do, you need to know what outcome you're working toward. This module introduces the four paths: stay and fight, improve and see, plan your exit, or negotiate a departure. The goal is not to tell you what to choose — it's to help you realize you have a choice at all.
HR exists to protect the company. Not you. This module names that reality without demonizing it — and explains how to use that understanding to your advantage.
What to document, what not to put in writing, how to respond to the PIP, and when to get a lawyer involved. This is the module you'll return to. It's the information you couldn't find on Google.
Personalized by path. Specific guidance for each of the four choices: how to perform your way through, how to plan a strategic exit, how to open a negotiation conversation, and how to know when none of those is the right move.
Plus: The PIP First-Response Checklist — a downloadable one-pager with the 10 things to do (and 5 things to avoid) in the first 72 hours AND a Collection of Scripts and Email Templates you can put to use immediately.
Who This is For
You got the PIP today, or last week. Maybe it's your first job or your fifteenth. It doesn't matter where you are in your career. A PIP lands the same way regardless. You need someone to tell you the truth about what's actually happening without pity, without vague encouragement, and without a sales pitch. You're not ready to talk to a lawyer yet... or you can't afford to.
What This Course Is Not
This is not legal advice and it's not therapy. It's the strategic framework you need before either of those conversations
