I knew exactly one person who got put on a PIP by his manager and didn't end up fired. It ended up being because his manager got fired first, and his new manager saw that the PIP was completely ridiculous and the employee was in fact great. Nonetheless, it took that guy's career years to recover. He was basically his team's technical lead, but he was but was still ranked and paid as an entry-level engineer.
I'm surprised the employee in question didn't spend the rest of his tenure at the company applying to other jobs and printing out resumes. Why would you stick around with such a yoke around your neck?
An abusive employer, just like an abusive SO, can demoralize you to the point where you think you deserve the abuse and that nobody else will take you.
Getting out of that pit is genuinely hard. One of the companies I worked for back in the day was abusive, and it took me a very long time to get out. I eventually mustered up enough confidence to leave, but I stayed for ages even after I realized the company was toxic.
I have a very similar story with an interesting twist. I knew exactly one person who got on a PIP by his manager and didn't get fired. Almost anyone who worked with this person including me felt that the PIP was justified because he was known to be an incompetent developer.
The PIP ended up because his manager left the company. He was assigned to a new manager who worked in a different location. So the manager-employee relationship became a remote-relationship for them. He played his cards very well with the new manager and got himself out of PIP.
Nonetheless, it took that guy's career years to recover. Everyone around except this new manager still saw him as incompetent. He is still paid as an entry-level engineer.
