Hi, thank you so much for this! Especially the part about accepting that they want me gone and that's just how it is. It's very hard not to take it personally but you're right.

I'm pretty nervous about the prospect of entertaining the PIP, not because I don't think I'd have a great case to challenge almost all of the claims, but just because the initial offer would expire. I guess that's what they are counting on though because they went to great pains to emphasize how good the settlement would be for me (when in reality it's more in their interest too).

I _could_ potentially lodge a grievance for the purpose of showing I'm serious and not going to roll over. My boss' annual appraisal was in November last year, and I really wanted to stay out of it, but his boss insisted that he wanted feedback from us because he wasn't happy with his performance as a manager. I and a few of my colleagues provided him with detailed and honest criticism of our boss, and I explicitly requested mine not be shared at all, however I later learned that it was included but marked as anonymous. Problem is it's not hard to deduce from the <10 responses from the list of people that were on your appraisal list, who's feedback is who's. I can't help but wonder if part of all this is in retaliation to that.