Oracle does “organizational restructuring” by laying off 100s of employees

Last week, the news of Oracle laying off a huge number of employees as a part of its “organizational restructuring” came as a shock. The reason behind this layoff round was not clear, while some said that this was done to save money, some others said that people working on a legacy product were let go.

This secretive and sudden layoff process has left people speculating about the number of employees laid off. One of the users on TheLayoff.com commented, “I think it was 10% from OCI due to being insulated for the past 5 years. I thought it was around 3k global, 2.3% of the total workforce.” Another user speculated that the number could be 1,500 and “more to follow” given Oracle’s deflating performance.

Another user speculated that the target is in fact 9000 people worldwide and the layoffs will be conducted in three different rounds. The user disclosing further details said, “First round will close in May, the US, as usual, got hit first, next in turn, is LAD and APAC, then EMEA. Slightly more than 2000 people affected overall. The second round will close in October/November, around 6000 people. Last round will close in December.”

The lay off was nothing but a “slaughter”

The employees were informed about the layoffs through an email sent on Thursday by Don Johnson, Oracle executive vice president at 5 a.m. In the email, Johnson explained how this change will impact Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

Johnson in the email wrote, “Today’s changes within OCI will better align with Larry's vision of the business. It will streamline our products and services, focus investments on our most strategic priorities, and help us to more effectively and rapidly deliver the full promise and reach of Oracle's Gen 2 Cloud.” Further, in the email, he ironically talked about “a bright future”. He wrote, “OCI’s business is stronger than ever, and this team’s future is bright.”

While for some people new mornings bring new possibilities, for these employees it felt like a “slaughter”. One of the affected employees told IEEE Spectrum, “The morning felt like a slaughter. One person after another. People who have shaped me, who’ve been instrumental in my own success, who are good, smart, capable, wonderful. It’s been a terrible day. A company’s most valuable asset is the people it employs. Today’s cuts leave me to wonder if Oracle will ever realize the mistake it has made in letting these people go.”

One Oracle manager shared that he was notified about an employee just a day before and some other managers were not even notified beforehand. Here is what Oracle told IEEE Spectrum when asked about this layoff, “As our cloud business grows, we will continually balance our resources and restructure our development group to help ensure we have the right people delivering the best cloud products to our customers around the world.”