If you are reading this because it is happening to you, the short version is: the thing you are worried about is almost certainly something hundreds of other people have been worried about too. Below is what they asked, in what order, and what it tells us.
Finding one: this usually starts with your health, not your performance
The single most common context was not a formal process. It was sickness.
Of the 115 discussions describing sick leave or mental health difficulties, 53% also described a performance or capability process running at the same time. Across all 473 discussions, only 27% mentioned such a process. People describing sickness were nearly twice as likely to also be facing a process about their capability.
The same group were nearly twice as likely to mention discrimination or whistleblowing: 52% against a 27% base rate.
What that means in practice. A large number of people are being asked to make one of the most consequential financial decisions of their working life at the point when they are least well equipped to make it. If that is you, the most useful thing to know is that there is no rule requiring you to decide while you are unwell, and asking for more time is normal.
Finding two: the PIP and the offer often arrive together
Performance improvement plans appeared in 27.3% of discussions. Of those, 22.5% also described a settlement or exit offer.
The question we saw asked more than any other, and which drew more replies than any other in the entire dataset, was a version of: is it normal to be put on a PIP and offered a settlement at the same time?
It is, and it is worth understanding why. Presenting both at once shows two routes: improve, or leave on agreed terms. They are different kinds of thing. A capability process has standards it has to meet. A settlement offer is a negotiation. Being shown them together does not mean you have to treat them as a single decision.
Mentions of PIPs were also higher in the last two years (28.9%) than before (19.0%), though the earlier sample is small enough that we would not lean on it.
Finding three: people do not understand what "without prejudice" means
It came up in 27.7% of discussions, the second most common theme, and almost always as a question rather than a statement. People had been told a conversation was "without prejudice" or "protected" and did not know what had just happened to them.
This matters because it is usually the very first signal that an exit is coming. It is the earliest point at which taking advice changes the outcome, and it is the point at which almost nobody does.
Finding four: the fear of saying no is larger than the risk
14.2% of discussions involved someone asking what would happen if they refused.
Refusing an offer is not misconduct and does not end your employment. What usually follows is that the offer is improved, left open, or the employer proceeds with whatever process they had already started. The anxiety in these discussions was consistently out of proportion to what people were being told by others who had been through it.
Read: what happens if I refuse? →
Finding five: the things worth most in a negotiation are the things nobody asks about
References appeared in 10.4% of discussions. Restrictive covenants in 7%. New job and garden leave questions in 14.2%.
These are among the most negotiable terms in a settlement agreement and frequently cost the employer nothing. An agreed reference, annexed to the agreement in fixed wording, removes a genuine source of anxiety about the next job. Yet they came up far less often than the headline payment figure, which suggests most people are negotiating only on money.
The full picture
| What people asked about | Share of 473 discussions |
|---|---|
| Redundancy context | 39.3% |
| Without prejudice / protected conversation | 27.7% |
| PIP / managed out | 27.3% |
| Discrimination / whistleblowing | 26.8% |
| Sick leave / mental health | 24.3% |
| Tribunal | 17.1% |
| Refusing an offer | 14.2% |
| New job / garden leave | 14.2% |
| Deadline / pressure | 13.5% |
| Tax | 12.3% |
| Reference wording | 10.4% |
| Solicitor fees | 9.7% |
Full method, coding rules and limitations →
What we did with this
We used it to decide what to write. Every question in our Answers section came from this research, which is why it is organised the way people actually think about the problem rather than the way the law is structured.
If this is happening to you
Deen & Co advises employees on settlement agreements. We are based in Canary Wharf and act for people across England and Wales.
Published 25 August 2026. Last reviewed 25 August 2026.