I've seen it twice, both with the same (absolutely terrible) manager. Short story, manager heard someone complain about employee, assumed employee wasn't doing their job, and put them on PIP.

Then, because the PIP actually defined the job standards, and involved checking with people who actually could evaluate the employee's performance, it became patently obvious that the employee was meeting them (and actually doing a great job).

Of course, in both cases the process was so insulting that the employees began interviewing around immediately and quit within a few months. And, no surprise, it left such a bad taste in everybody's mouths that almost the entire team quit over the next few months as well.

But, I don't think this is common. :)