Probation periods, used properly
A probation period is a review commitment, not a licence to postpone a decision. Most are allowed to lapse by silence.
Probationary periods appear in most contracts and are used seriously in a minority of small companies. The common pattern is that the period runs, nobody schedules anything, and the person becomes permanent by default when a date passes.
That is a missed opportunity in both directions. The employer has not used the structured checkpoint they wrote into the contract, and the employee has completed six months without a considered conversation about how it is going.
What probation actually is
A probationary period is a contractual arrangement, usually attaching a shorter notice period and sometimes a reduced set of benefits, during which both parties assess the appointment.
Two misconceptions are worth naming. First, it does not remove employment protections — anti-discrimination law applies from day one everywhere, and other rights vary by jurisdiction and length of service rather than by probationary status. Second, it is not a probation for the employer's benefit alone; the employee is assessing too, and in a tight labour market they are the party more likely to act on the assessment. For a related product-level perspective on employee write-ups, see this page. For broader independent guidance on this point, consult Acas probation-period guidance.
What probation permits — notice, pay, dismissal process — varies substantially between jurisdictions and is sometimes constrained by statute or collective agreement. Confirm the position that applies to you rather than assuming the general pattern.
Schedule the reviews when the contract is issued
The reviews should be in the calendar before the person starts, at the points the plan defines, with a final one comfortably before the period ends — not on the last day, when there is no time left to extend or to act.
Booking them at issue rather than later is the whole mechanism. Reviews arranged when someone remembers are arranged when there is a problem, which changes what the meeting means.
There should be no surprises at the final review
If the final probation meeting contains information the employee is hearing for the first time, the process has failed regardless of the outcome. Concerns should have been raised when they arose, with specifics and with a stated opportunity to address them.
This is a fairness point and a practical one. A decision not to confirm an appointment is far easier to defend, and far easier to deliver, when it refers to a documented conversation from six weeks earlier.
Extending is legitimate; drifting is not
Sometimes an appointment is genuinely unresolved — a long illness, a delayed project, a slow start with a clear upward trajectory. Extending is a reasonable response where the contract permits it.
It has to be an explicit decision: communicated in writing, with a new end date, and with a specific statement of what needs to be different. An extension that is not accompanied by that statement is a postponement, and it will produce the same unresolved conversation in three months.
Confirm it deliberately
When the appointment is working, say so properly. A short written confirmation that probation is complete, with a sentence about what the person has done well, is a small act with a disproportionate effect.
Passing probation in silence is the most common version and it communicates something unintended: that the company was not paying enough attention to notice. Given how much the appointment cost to make, that is an odd note to end the process on.