When a Performance Plan Isn’t About Performance: A Survival Guide for Executive Women

When a “Performance Plan” Isn’t About Performance — It’s About Power

If you’re a woman in your 40s, 50s, or 60s and you’ve just been told you’re being placed on a “Performance Improvement Plan,” take a breath. You’re not crazy, you’re not alone, and this probably isn’t about your performance.

I’ve represented hundreds of women in this exact situation — senior executives at the peak of their careers, who consistently delivered results for years. Then, seemingly overnight, they were told they weren’t “meeting expectations.”

When this happens to women of a certain age. it’s rarely about declining ability. It’s about bias: the age-plus-sex double standard that says men in midlife are hitting their stride while women in midlife are sliding downhill.

And when natural transitions like perimenopause or menopause enter the picture, things get worse. Normal hormonal changes — the kind that can cause temporary brain fog, disrupted sleep, or fatigue — get pathologized as “performance issues.” Instead of offering flexibility or support, too many employers turn those moments into a paper trail for your departure.

That’s why you have to get out ahead of it — to protect yourself before they decide to “help you improve.”

1. Don’t Panic — Gather Information

A “PIP” is often sold as a coaching tool, but it’s frequently a prelude to termination. Your first step is to assess what you’re dealing with.

Ask for the specifics — in writing:

• What metrics are being used?

• What’s the timeline?

• Who will evaluate me, and how?

• What led to this decision?

Managers often soften their tone in conversation but avoid committing to facts on paper. Written documentation exposes inconsistencies and motives later.

2. Document — and Speak Up Strategically

Keep a confidential log on a personal device that includes:

• Your last 12–24 months of performance reviews

• Emails showing positive feedback or client wins

• Notes from every PIP-related meeting

• Any examples of shifting expectations, double standards, or selective scrutiny

But don’t just file everything away. If you’re seeing a pattern of age-related or gendered bias — or if health-related factors like perimenopause are being unfairly judged — it’s time to raise those concerns in writing to HR. Internal complaints put the company on formal notice and can transform a one-sided process into a legally protected activity.

Discriminatory bias only thrives in silence.

3. Consult an Employment Attorney Early

Don’t wait until you’re shown the door. A lawyer who understands gendered ageism and reproductive-life-stage discrimination can help you:

• Recognize whether your PIP reflects age-plus-sex bias, retaliation, or failure to accommodate menopause symptoms

• Frame written responses to protect your rights

• Open quiet, strategic conversations with HR while leverage still exists

Even one consultation can change the entire trajectory.

4. Stay Professional — But Stay Visible

Visibility is power. Keep performing. Show up. Stay active on LinkedIn and in your professional networks. When colleagues continue to see your expertise and credibility, it becomes far harder for management to rewrite your story as “underperforming.”

5. Don’t Quit — Ever (Unless You’re Retiring or Hired Elsewhere)

I’ve been saying this for over two decades: Don’t. Quit.

Unless you’re retiring or have another job already lined up, resignation is self-sabotage. If you quit, you lose leverage for severance, you forfeit unemployment benefits, and you hand your employer exactly what they want — a clean break with no liability.

Quitting is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater: there’s no coming back from it. If you need out, negotiate your exit, don’t surrender it.

Conclusion:

When high-achieving women in midlife are suddenly told they’re “not performing,” it says more about the organization’s blind spots than the woman’s ability.

If men experienced andropause with the same range and intensity of symptoms that women often do in the menopause, the workplace would already be redesigned to accommodate it—and they’d still be celebrated as “in their prime.”

So don’t internalize the gaslight. You’re not in decline; you’re in command. Protect what you’ve built, demand fairness, and remember: performance plans aren’t always about performance — they’re about power, perception, and prejudice.

Jack Tuckner

Women’s Rights in the Workplace

Legal advocacy for pregnancy, menopause, and everything in between.