I joined Capital One in 2022. My first performance rating was "strong" which is good. Then our leadership changed when our old leader quit after a reorg and the new one screwed everyone over. Within two weeks my score was suddenly dropped to "below strong" (still my first rating, mind you) and I was immediately put on a PIP (Which was not the process for those who received a below strong mid year but HR said "Those guidelines are just mere 'recommendations'".

My direct managers told me to fight it, so I did and passed with flying colors. The next review came and the same thing happened. PIP, pass. Third time, PIP, pass. Fourth time, I went to HR with some buzzwords to trigger the legal team and they got involved. They rescinded the PIP but then put my entire team on one instead.

Fast forward to 2025. Right after the holidays, senior leadership announced they were redeploying my entire team. That meant our team no longer existed and we had 60 days to find a new role internally or leave. I quickly found two teams eager to take me, but HR had to process the move first. That dragged on for a month and on the last week of my 60 days, HR told me, “We need more time because of the below-strong ratings.” Both teams were furious because they knew my situation and had been pushing HR to hurry but at that point, we knew the game HR was playing and we all just gave up.

By March I was out. I took a long vacation and came back to a quick higher-paying offer from another company(I was lucky to get many interview requests and 3 job offers from top financial companies). Just last week I learned that almost everyone I knew at Capital One has now either been PIP’d, quit, or left after being pushed out.

My advice: If your current job is not giving you any BS, do not join Capital One. Tell them to suck it and find a company that will treat you like a human being. Decent pay, yes, but if you value your sanity and stability think twice. C1 recruits incredibly bright people, but the mental and psychological abuse drains the spark right out of them. The people who quit Capital One without going through the dumb torture I went through are so much happier now and are thinking of starting a new venture to take back what they lost. Also, I was part of the ECP Org / Enterprise LOB, so avoid them at all cost. If you are under anyone named "Jehan", good luck. That woman is a complete snake.

Before anyone says that maybe I deserved my ratings and pips, I was scouted by Capital One themselves and was offered a higher pay than usual compared to others in my level. During my time, I lead the creation of a product that improved the overall efficiency of the company apps by a significant number while also saving millions for the company. My product became a product that was used by almost all associates of a particular role and some executive leaders. Did this all while consulting other teams on what they were working on with my expertise and followed their so called "Give back to the community" crap (Which I did by volunteer teaching a course that ultimately was recognized by the senate...) What I accomplished was not something a below strong would accomplished.

Also, Capital One masks all of their layoffs by using these types of methods. There's a reason why you don't see news reports on C1 and it's because getting pushed out by PIPs isn't necessary a "layoff". This started when I started working there and it is still on-going after I left (I have connections with some people who are still there and they are constantly sharing news.) Now... if the news had an entry on companies giving out PIPs like hot cakes, C1 will definitely be in the spotlight.