Sarah Lenihan

You Can’t Manage Mental Illness with a PIP

In HR, we’re trained to spot patterns. When someone’s missing deadlines, skipping meetings, or clashing with colleagues, we reach for the usual tools — feedback, coaching, maybe a performance plan. But every now and then, a case lands on your desk that doesn’t fit the usual pattern. And if you try to treat it like a standard performance issue, you’re going to do more harm than good.

I recently came across a case where a manager was at their wit’s end. The employee in question was deeply distressed — crying at their desk, unable to focus, disengaged from tasks, and completely overwhelmed. They weren’t responding to internal supports. The manager, exhausted and out of options, turned to HR for help — asking if performance management was now the next step.

But here’s the thing: this wasn’t a performance issue. It was a capacity issue.
The employee wasn’t underperforming because they wouldn’t do the work.
They couldn’t.

Performance vs. Capacity: A Line Worth Drawing

One of the most misunderstood distinctions in HR is this:

  • A performance issue is when someone can do the job but isn’t.
  • A capacity issue is when someone wants to do the job but can’t — often due to illness, trauma, or other health-related factors.

If you treat a capacity issue like a performance problem, you risk:

  • Further harm to the employee,
  • Legal and industrial risk to your organisation,
  • Damaging the trust between staff, HR, and management.

HR is Not a Crisis Team — and Managers Aren’t Counsellors

It’s not uncommon to see managers going above and beyond: providing emotional support, helping employees calm down, even driving them home. It comes from a good place — but it’s not sustainable.

And then HR gets the “can we performance manage?” question — but that only works when there’s capacity to meet expectations. Without that, you need an entirely different process: one centred on medical input, consent, and capability, not behavioural accountability.

Sometimes Doing the Right Thing Feels Like Doing Nothing

This is the hard bit. Sometimes, all you can do is:

  • Acknowledge the concern,
  • Confirm it’s not suitable for performance action,
  • Recommend medical review or appropriate internal support services,
  • Wait — especially if the employee hasn’t consented to engage.

It feels passive. But it’s correct.
Managing illness through the wrong process puts everyone at risk — the employee, the manager, and you.

A Few Things I Wish More People Understood

  • You can’t coach someone out of a panic attack.
  • You can’t restructure trauma.
  • You can’t manage depression with a performance improvement plan.
  • Sometimes, the right action is knowing where your role ends, and what support is appropriate.

Final Thought

HR professionals walk a difficult line between compassion, policy, and process. But we also have to know when a situation sits outside our remit — and when to hold the line for everyone’s safety. It’s not always satisfying. It rarely wraps up neatly. But it’s necessary.

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