Like Microsoft and IBM, the 'Alicante Mafia'-Governed EPO Does PIPs Nowadays (at the EPO, It's "Professional Incompetence Procedure")
We saw some PIP letters (we cannot share these without introducing risk to sources)
There are PIPs and layoffs bulldozing through Microsoft's workforce (the layoffs didn't stop, just put on hold while building a huge snowball like last summer's). Similarly, at IBM the insiders say there are many PIPs (basically a way for IBM to sack people without paying them severance at all; they can barely recover once put on a PIP, so it became a death knell, not a "Performance Improvement" plan). This was posted just 10 hours ago:
Curiously enough, even the EPO in Europe (where terms like "appraisal" get used [1, 2, 3]) says "PIPs". But the acronym's expansion isn't the same, it is "Professional Incompetence Procedure".
The union at the EPO has circulated the following message this week:
Your appraisal report: check it carefully!
Dear members, dear colleagues,
You have no doubt received your appraisal reports, also known as performance development reports. These reports are crucial documents that summarize your work at the EPO and serve as a basis for decisions related to career progression, selection processes, and addressing underperformance.
This is an important document!
Given the current environment of high production demands, we strongly recommend that you review your appraisal report carefully. If it does not accurately reflect your work or challenges you faced in 2025, you should consider contesting it. To do so you need to send an email requesting a conciliation meeting to your reporting and countersigning officers (RO and CSO) within 2 weeks of receiving it.
We would like to highlight the following concerns:
Reports including references to “unacceptable”, “incompetence”, Articles 52, 53a, 53b, “(far) below”, ...
Positive reports that still include negative ratings (e.g., "not met" or "partially met").
Reports submitted by Reporting Officers without providing sufficient opportunities for review before calibration by the Counter-Signing Officer.
These slides provide guidance on what to look out for in your report and the actions you can take in response to an appraisal report that does not adequately represent your contributions. (The slides are from 2025 but the principles remain identical).
Also, bear in mind that it is not too late to express disagreement with high targets imposed on you for 2026 – see also here. This is important to protect you from a potential future harsh performance appraisal.
Looking at the slides they've circulated, we see PIPs in the later parts (notice our annotation):
The red arrows below were added (superimposed) by us:
Here also:
So "PIPs" are definitely in the EPO and we saw letters sent to staff. They help confirm this. They absolutely destroy the health and family life of those impacted. We'll cover this in the ongoing series about mobbing (see Part I, Part II, and Part III). █
Image source: Spain and Portugal