It stands for Performance Improvement Plan. It's usually a document provided to employees that have struggled with performance outlining a plan with set goals and timelines on how to improve and and address the performance issues. People have different opinions on what to do upon receiving one. Many folks suggest interviewing elsewhere and essentially looking for a new job as you're technically on your way out of your job. But if you do believe you can improve your performance significantly and that the cause for concern may have been unjust, you can follow the plan and get yourself out of PIP and back to standard responsibility as an employee. Communication with your manager and colleagues is key at this stage, as you want to keep a pulse on your performance within your team, and also make sure you're addressing the core issues highlighted in your PIP. You also want to ensure that you're surfacing your work and efforts to your team demonstrating that you're serious about improvement. It particularly sucks for folks with visas that need to stay at their company to continue living in the country. Their choice are often times made for them since they can't just quit and look for something else. And sometimes companies wield PIPs unethically to essentially work these individuals harder. That said, PIPs are needed though and I've seen several cases where employees just weren't performing (or even showing up to work), and the PIP served as the final way to communicate the issues to them before finally letting them go.