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In large organizations, HR usually has a process for documenting concerns about employees effectiveness that can be used either to help fix those problemsor to provide a basis for later termination. One of the central records used for this purpose is the dreaded performance improvement plan, or PIP. If you get called in to see your supervisor and get hit with a PIP, youre likely to experience a range of emotions. Understanding your emotional reaction and how to cope with it is an important part of moving forward successfully. Lets consider a range of emotions you might be experiencing and what you should do: Feeling Grief One possibility is that the PIP comes out of the blue. You may be thinking that work is going fine and you suddenly find out that there are concerns. Because work is often an important part of both your identity and your ability to maintain your life and lifestyle, it represents a tear in the fabric of your life story. And that will trigger a grief process. The five stages of grief described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) dont necessarily have to happen in that order, but you should recognize that they may accompany the news that you are struggling in your job. You have to resist the urge to act on the basis of these emotions. If you get angry, you should not lash out at your bosses or the organization in email or on social media. If you feel like bargaining, take a beat, and avoid making promises that you will regret later. Instead, give yourself a few days to reflect on the situation. Were you dismissing warning signs about your performance? Are there elements of your job that you have been ignoring? Do you think the organization is looking for a way to show you the exit? After that reflection, schedule a meeting with your supervisor to talk over the situation. In preparation for that session, make a realistic plan for how you will address issues discussed in your PIP. Develop a list of questions you have about the path forward. Wait to schedule that meeting for a time when you feel that you can really hear the answers to your questions. Feeling Relief Perhaps surprisingly, you may find that the PIP brings with it a feeling of relief. You may have been struggling to complete your job responsibilities. Perhaps you feel that youre in over your head. You might even hate your job, but were soldiering on by inertia. If the PIP brings a feeling of relief, it’s probably time to look for a new job. The feelings youre having are helping you see that you can have a more fulfilling work life by changing paths. Make a list of the things you really like about your job, as well as those you dont. Think about the characteristics of a job that would be appealing. Consider talking with your supervisor or someone in HR about alternative paths. Often, your supervisor wants you to be successfuleven if that success means that you should be working elsewhere. They may have great suggestions about a role that would best suit your talents. Feeling Clarity Sometimesparticularly early in your careeryou have a nagging sense that there is something wrong at work. Youre doing your work as well as you can, but feel like youre missing something. You may have the sense that everyone else is working from a different version of the script than you are. In this case, the PIP may actually help to clarify what is going wrong. This can happen when you have a supervisor who is not good at providing regular feedback and coaching. In this situation, you can really dive into the PIP (after taking a day or two to see this as an opportunity, rather than a punishment). Sit down with your supervisor and other team members and talk about the elements of your performance that have raised concern. Ask about training and classes you can take to improve your performance. Find a peer who is good at these tasks and ask for some mentorship. The people who emerge most strongly from a PIP are those who embrace the opportunity for growth and lean into the chance to improve skills. As this process moves forward, talk with your supervisor about how to get more timely feedback on your performance. This conversation is likely to help you improve, and may also provide some feedback to your supervisor that can lead to their growth as well.
Category:
E-Commerce
Amid the ongoing evolution of digital privacy laws, one California proposal is drawing heightened attention from legal scholars, technologists, and privacy advocates. Assembly Bill 1355, while narrower in scope than landmark legislation like 2018s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)which established sweeping rights for consumers to know, delete, and opt out of the sale of their personal informationcould become a pivotal effort to rein in the unchecked collection and use of personal geolocation data. The premise of the bill (which is currently undergoing analysis within the appropriations committee) is straightforward yet bold in the American legal landscape: Companies must obtain clear, opt-in consent before collecting or sharing users precise location data. They must also disclose exactly what data they gather, why they gather it, and who receives it. At a glance, this seems like a logical privacy upgrade. But beneath the surface, it questions the very structure of an industry built on the quiet extraction and monetization of personal information. Were really trying to help regulate the use of your geolocation data, says the bills author, Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward, who represents Californias 78th district, which covers parts of San Diego and surrounding areas. You should not be able to sell, rent, trade, or lease anybodys location information to third parties, because nobody signed up for that. Among types of personal information, location data is especially sensitive. It reveals where people live, work, worship, protest, and seek medical care. It can expose routines, relationships, and vulnerabilities. As stories continue to surface about apps selling location data to brokers, government workers, and even bounty hunters, the conversation has expanded. What was once a debate about privacy has increasingly become a concern over how the exposure of this data infringes upon fundamental civil liberties. Geolocation is very revealing, says Justin Brookman, the director of technology policy at Consumer Reports, which supported the legislation. It tells a lot about you, and it also can be a public safety issue if it gets into the wrong persons hands. For advocates of the new legislation, the concern goes beyond permission screens. Its about control. When location data is collected silently and traded without oversight, people lose agency over how they move through the worldand whos watching. A power imbalance at the heart of location tracking To understand the urgency behind proposals like AB 1355, look at how current data practices operate. The core issue isnt merely that companies collect informationits how relentlessly and opaquely they do so, often without real accountability. Consent, when obtained, is typically buried in lengthy and confusing policies. Meanwhile, data brokers operate with minimal regulation, assembling detailed behavioral profiles that may influence credit decisions, hiring, and insurance rates. Most people have little knowledge of who holds their data or how it’s used. For example, a fitness app might collect location data to track your exercise routes, but then sell that information to a data broker who assembles a profile for targeted advertising. This same information, in the wrong hands, could also be used to stalk an individual, track their movements, or even determine their political affiliations. A lot of people don’t have the luxury to know that they should opt out or that they need to know how to find out how to opt out, Ward says. Equally troubling, Ward argues, is who benefits. The companies collecting and selling this data are driven by profit, not transparency. As scholar Shoshana Zuboff has argued, surveillance capitalism doesnt thrive because users want personalized ads. It thrives because opting out is hard, if people even realize theyve been opted in. AB 1355 proposes a shift: Consent to collect and share data must be given proactively, not retracted reactively. Rather than requiring users to hunt through settings, the burden would fall on companies to ask first. That rebalances the relationship between individuals and data collectors in a way that could set new norms beyond California. Its designed to take a lot of the burden off of consumers, so they dont have to worry about micromanaging their privacy, Brookman says. Instead, they can just trust that when geolocation is shared, its being used for the reason they gaveif they agreed to it in the first place. Industry groups, unsurprisingly, have raised concerns about operational impacts and innovation costs. In particular, critics warn that the burden on businesses could stifle innovation, particularly in sectors reliant on data-driven services. The California Chamber of Commerce wrote in an opposition letter that was shared with Fast Company that AB 1355 would create “confusion in operability for businesses” and impose costly new compliance burdens. “Changing the rules has real economic cost to businesses and consumers,” the letter states. “Constantly doing so without adequate justification or need is irresponsible at best.” A state bill with national stakes The bill is part of a larger trend among states moving to fill the federal vacuum on privacy regulation. Since the CCPAs passage, several statesincluding Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Texashave enacted their own data privacy laws. These measures vary in scope and strength, forming a state-by-state patchwork that complicates compliance but signals widespread concern. While most of these laws are general-purpose, a handfulsuch as recent efforts in Maryland and Massachusettshave begun to zero in on specific risks like geolocation tracking, mirroring some of AB 1355s core protections. Broadly speaking, Californias evolving legal framework, from the CCPA to its 2020 update via the California Privacy Rights Act (which expanded privacy protections in part by establishing the California Privacy Protection Agency) and now AB 1355, often sets informal national standards. Many companies adopt Californias rules across the board simply to streamline operations. That precedent-setting role isnt lost on Ward. I would hope that this could be model language that others could be able to adopt as well, he says. But location data adds urgency. In the wake of the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization in 2022, digital trails have taen on new weight. GPS data near abortion clinics or health apps tracking reproductive health are no longer abstract riskstheyre flashpoints in the national conversation about privacy, autonomy, and the role of technology in our most personal decisions.
Category:
E-Commerce
Only one in four U.S. employees strongly agree that their organization cares about their overall well-being, with stark implications. Gallup reports that high employee well-being leads to improved performance, fewer sick days, and lower rates of burnout and turnover. When your employees well-being suffers, so does your organizations bottom line, the group noted. At one time we may have thought that workplace well-being was separate from personal well-being. But now with digital overload, remote work, and a blurring of lines between work and home, it is a critical area for addressing how we feel about life in general. So how can organizations make mental health a real, lasting priority in the workplace? Here, experts offer eight strategies. 1. Speak up from the top and lead with experience As leaders, the most important role you can play in creating a mentally healthy workforce is to tackle stigma by having conversations in the workplace around mental well-being, says Zoe Sinclair, founder of the workplace mental well-being consultancy This Can Happen. Sinclair suggests leaders share their own lived experienceslike periods of stress or burnoutthrough internal company blogs, panels, or team meetings, to normalize mental health conversations. Leaders have the power to create change directly from the top down. Ensure that youre consistent in your approach and that mental health is regularly a part of your conversations in the workplace, she adds. This will truly help to tackle the taboo. 2. Call out toxicity and dont let it fester Reinvention coach and Uncaged author Katia Vlachos argues that one of the most overlooked contributors to mental distress at work is unchecked toxic behavior. One of the most powerful things a leader can do to support mental health at work is to name the dysfunction, and actively protect their people from it, she says. Vlachos has seen firsthand how unspoken dysfunction, from subtle gaslighting to exclusion, can erode trust and well-being. To foster a mentally healthy workplace, she says, leaders must have the awareness and courage to say, This [toxic behavior] is not okay. And I wont allow it on my watch. Protecting mental health means protecting peoples dignity, she adds. To do that, she says, its important to create clear, safe channels for employees to speak upwithout fear of facing retaliation or of being dismissed as difficult. When people feel safe to be themselves at work, they dont just survive; they thrive. And so do their organizations. 3. Rewire workplace conversations Most workplace conversations start with problems (for example: We’ve missed our targets for the second quarter), say David Pullan and Sarah Jane McKechnie, leadership experts and the authors of The DNA of Engagement: A Story-Based Approach to Building Trust and Influencing Change. But this approach triggers our brains’ defense mechanism. A small shift in the structure of how we communicate can significantly improve psychological safety, and that can be done via Pullan and McKechnies DNA model: Dream-Nightmare-Action. This method starts with leaders acknowledging the Dream (a teams aspirations), then addressing the Nightmare (challenges), and finally moving to Action (the solution). This sequence creates psychological safety because people feel understood before they feel challenged, the authors add. Collaborative conversations lead to engaged teams co-authoring innovative solutions. Its practical neuroscience: connection before correction. 4. Use Generative AI to remove the emotion from employee feedback AI is more often associated with productivity gains than emotional well-being, but Michael Wade and Amit Joshi, professors at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) and authors of GAIN: Demystifying GenAI for office and home, argue otherwise. We believe that organizations and leaders can also leverage this technology to strengthen psychological safety within organizationswhen implemented thoughtfully, they say. They propose a GenAI-powered “anonymous feedback system,” a way of collecting, analyzing, and acting upon data or feedback from employees. Advanced AI systems can collect employee feedback while completely disconnecting it from identifying information, they explain. These tools can then analyze patterns to identify systemic workplace issues. Rather than simply passing along potentially charged emotional language that might trigger defensive responses from leadership, AI can reframe feedback into actionable, solution-oriented recommendations while preserving the substance of concerns, Wade and Joshi say. They add that for discussions involving sensitive workplace issues, AI-mediated communication channels can help establish psychological distance that enables more open and honest conversation. 5. Make accommodations, even if theyre small, for people who think differently Alex Partridge, neurodiversity advocate, founder of LADBible, and author of Now It All Makes Sense, knows from experience how conventional workplaces often ignore neurodiverse employees needs: Being neurodiverse and trying to fit in isnt always easy. For some people, the office can be a difficult place to focus and a sensory nightmare, Partridge says. Seemingly simple accommodationslike remote work where possible and setting meeting agendas ahead of timecan be transformative, he says. There are many times I have sat in meetings and been unable to think clearly enough to contribute, he adds. Time and time again, the outcome of the meeting was decided by the loudest and most confident voices, but often the best ideas were trapped inside anxious minds. Partridge recommends forward planning to help all employees get the best from meetings. All the information to be presented in the meeting should be sent to attendees via email, and then everyone has a deadline24 hours works wellto put forward their solutions and ideas. Small accommodations in the workplace can make a huge difference, and theyre something that all neurodiverse employees are entitled to.” 6. Redefine productivity and model it from the top Leaders need torethink busy-ness as a byword for productivity, which has a knock-on effect across teams, says Philip Atkinson, organizational coach and author of Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons From a Busy Beehive. Ask someone how they are, and the answer is often, Good, thanks. Busy. Weve bought into the idea that being constantly busy is success. He points out that speed often leads to poor decisions and chronic fatiguewe might be ticking things off for a dopamine hit, but may be acting before we think. Were always on, always available. Its become a badge of honor. Instead, Atkinson suggests leaders prioritize what really matters. Our competitive advantage, in the age of AI, doesn’t come from doing more but thinking harder. Instead of a to-do list, lets try making a to-dont list.’ 7. Respect your peoples work-life boundaries Every time you email someone a quick question at 10 p.m., youre effectively saying that personal boundaries are optional, says Nik Kinley, leadership coach and author of The Power Trap: How Leadership Changes People, and What To Do About It. He warns leaders to think carefully about after-hours communication, because what starts as a convenience or habit becomes a silent expectation. People need time away to recharge their batteries and be fully productive. So, lead by example and cut the off-hour emails,” he adds. “Schedule all but the most urgent to be sent early the next day. If you see others sending nonurgent emails out of hours, ask them to schedule them, too. Publicly lay down the ground rules. This isnt just about mental health, Kinley says. Its about people sustaining high productivity and performance levels through extended periods of pressure. 8. Prioritize human connection Leaders under commercial pressure often seek out quick solutions and focus relentlessly on results, says Josephine McGrail, wellness coach and author of The Morning Miracle, Messages of Love, and Fall in Love With You. What people truly need is human connection: a place to speak and be heard, not judged, not fixed. We need to remember our human element in the workplace, she says. According to McGrail, outdated management practices and paradigms such as Dont let down your guard are part of the problem, and are actually unsustainable in the long term. People thrive when they feel includedlike they matter and their input matters. Fear and anxiety at work arise when we feel a deep sense of isolation and cant relate to each other. Therefore, your team needs to see you present authentically as a leader, she says. McGrail suggests leaders not only visibly celebrate big wins but also speak honestly about how they deal with disappointment and stress. By prioritizing human connection, leaders can better motivate and inspire their teams, she says.
Category:
E-Commerce
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