When is it appropriate to leave without giving two weeks?

I recently was put on PIP unfairly after a year of good reviews. I had a great relationship with my direct manager, and I mistakenly never had those reviews in writing. Our weekly and quarterly reviews were all on calls.

When I walked into my annual review, I instantly knew something was off. There, I learned they had put me on PIP. The reasons did not make sense and made intentionally vague. I assume it is meant to protect the company. They have given me multiple projects I must complete in a short period now on top of a full workload. This is an impossible task that I made clear doesn’t make sense as we have historically been short staffed. I have already assumed more work after plenty of turnovers.

They have given me assignment after assignment even if it was outside of the work I did previous to this company. They hired me knowing my prior experience and said they did not mind that I did not work in the same department. They had me filling in gaps due to the turnover in different teams, and now, they are punishing me as I’m not “doing the work” I was hired to do when they have been assigning work after work to me.

Their reasoning did not make sense, but it was clear to me with their expectations in this PIP period that they would ultimately lead me to be fired. The projects cannot be done without falling behind in my current workload as well as their desire for me to pick up multiple large processes alone. When I asked if I would have a team or someone to delegate work to, they told me I could bring my concerns to them and insinuated that this should be manageable alone. It is in fact not. Unequivocally, an unreasonable ask.

They had never brought up any issues prior to this discussion. They said “multiple people” have voiced issues about me, and they were not willing to elaborate for me to gain understanding of anything that supposedly occurred. I wanted to understand if it was a misunderstanding or mistake. With this coming up in this important meeting, I wanted to understand the context. It was obvious they did not care for my side and I wasn’t deserving of the chance to course correct in the event of a genuine conflict or explain the details of the situation as I was not privy to that information.

They robbed me of any raises, bonuses, and my reputation. The level of betrayal and sheer apathy was loud. I’ve worked here long enough to deserve a conversation before this kind of response and treatment, and throughout the year, I worked long hours giving up weekends and nights to complete any task. They want me to manage multiple persons’ work without any support despite this work in the past receiving external/internal staffs’ and experts’ assistance for completion.

I understand there’s properly no recourse as I didn’t record my past performance reviews as it wasn’t an issue. I recognize that I should’ve protected myself earlier, regardless of how great my relationships have been with the team. This is a rough lesson, but it is a lesson learned. In this process, I learned that one of the persons I worked closest to this year is probably the person who participated in this. As I sat in this call, this person agreed with all points made without coming to my defense and added dissatisfaction and disappointment in me. This came as a complete shock, and it made my heart sink.

I have worked in other places before, and I have consistently received top performer reviews. I could accept an average review, but this is beyond my understanding. The more I reflect, the more confused I am. I’ve worked on much more complex, complicated clients and fact patterns, and this industry role does not compare to my work history. I may not find a role before this period ends, but I hope I am able to connect with others and my network to exit quickly. In the event that I am able to find a role, I do not feel comfortable giving two weeks notice due to the disgusting show of character I experienced in this moment. All this has done is have me reflect and realize that the strange behaviors of certain people should’ve been more of a red flag than my assumption of that their work style. I did not dig into interactions as malicious or manipulative, and I gave the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong for that. They have destroyed any trust.

I understand that a two week notice is a business standard, but is there ever a case where it is justified to go without?