I left Oracle a few months ago, so here is my take on the culture and layoffs…
Let’s tackle layoffs first… There is nothing unusual about Oracle Layoffs, you see a ton of jobs lost on the infrastructure side as more stuff is moved to the Cloud. If your job can be moved, it’ll be moved. There is a big push to move things offshore, nothing new for Oracle, this has been going on for decades now, nobody should be surprised.
There are many skills that cannot be offshored, if your communication skills are strong, if you can sell, if you can demo, if you can understand the tech and explain it to others, etc. All good traits to have today… Again, please do not jump on me now, everyone is doing it, it’s not fun and I do not endorse it, but it is our reality and it has been with us for a while now..
Look at the posts below, you will see a ton of Call Center folks, data center folks, etc. complaining – yes, those layoffs are happening, they are real, people are losing jobs and it’s horrible. But also, the fact is, everyone is doing it and for Oracle to survive they have to follow the same path…
Now, let me talk about Virtual Culture of Oracle – this is super cool. People work from home, it’s flexible, you have freedom, you do not lose many hours in commuting, etc. This is one of the best things at Oracle. This works for some folks, others are less skilled in it, you need to be disciplined and self starter. It’s hard to develop relationships, which hurts you in the long run. But, it was great for me as I did not want to spend a lot of time at Oracle…
Moving on, let’s talk tactical management… Oracles management layers are stiff and there is a lot of them – I hated this and I hated all reports about reports on reports that were reported… I get the drill… Many talented folks hate it and leave because of this – it’s hard to grow when you are constrained. Affects developers, PMs, analysts, change people, you name it… You have to play Oracle politics, and there is a lot of politics, nobody likes it but everyone is playing it – it’s amazing… Instead of focusing on customers, folks are focusing on politics, this hurts customers, employees, Oracle. It’d bad and it’s a bit worse if compared to other companies that I worked for…
An utter lack of any effective performance metrics down the management hierarchy is leading to an inefficient business culture where success is measured by the size of your organization and this in turn silences all that the customer wants to tell you –it’s all about power struggle and the need to internally survive. I hated this and I did not want to be part of this game – that’s why I left.
Overall, it’s a great company that has a lot to offer to an employee, but after a few years certain things start to weigh on you and things will not be that rosy any more.