I bumped into two people this week, one at IKEA, and one at the Mall. Both had been laid off in November. I had not heard!
These are both folks who had mentored me in the past, so I was shocked.
Keeping quiet is the Oracle way!
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The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Silence is overrated.
As the old Simon and Garfunkel said, ‘Silence like a cancer grows.’
It is remarkable that it happened only once at Oracle, given the male dominance of the hierarchy.
And suddenly this board makes more sense. Did ebil Oracle got your pronouns wrong as well?
I know another woman who was suddenly force-moved from UI work to server-side. No reason given. Under same VP. Misogynist tactic.
lolwut? server side is better
I wasn’t allowed to give demos much. Out of site, out of mind I guess. I know another woman who was suddenly force-moved from UI work to server-side. No reason given. Under same VP. Misogynist tactic. I know it well. Keeps the women looking d-mb. In the long run though I have learned a little about everything. Makes me a better candidate for architect, not that it mattered. VP promoted director’s girlfriend. All the architects I know were promoted on other people’s work. Same VP.
“ In the twenty-five years I had been a developer, and a good developer, I had never once been spoken down to like that. “
It is remarkable that it happened only once at Oracle, given the male dominance of the hierarchy.
There was a VP I did a demo for at one point. I remember it well. He said nothing until I was done. Then he said a few meaningless words but it was the way he said them that sticks in my mind. He spoke to me in baby talk. He used the phrase “my dear”. What a sad misogynist. In the twenty-five years I had been a developer, and a good developer, I had never once been spoken down to like that. What a sad man. I have no respect for men like that.
Decent people think others are decent. It’s really tough to find out when some are not. I don’t understand how mid level VP can get pleasure out of harming people, Oracle and themselves. Respectable people are taught good manners, how to treat others, etc. I guess they all come from bad backgrounds. What we give (good or bad) out, we get back. It’s going to hit them hard. Much they do is illegal.
I do believe there are some decent mid mgmt folks. VPs have a responsibility for protecting assets of Corp. They lie, steal and cheat Oracle. Definitely grounds for termination.
I do think there are a good, honest, law-abiding VPs at Oracle. They have a responsibility for reporting corruption to upper mgmt, confidentiality. Not doing so, is harmful to the company & puts them the same category, harming Oracle.
It’s a sad lesson in humanity at Oracle. I too assumed the people around me and especially the management above me were decent human beings. It has been a sad revelation over years that they were nowhere close to decent people. In many cases I find the term “evil” especially applicable. Sad to live like these people but sadder still for decent people to have to deal with them or be taken in by them. My eyes are now open wide. The world is not what we want it to be.
I was at oracle for 16 years. I never ever thought I mattered. The people I worked under were total frauds. Many still there milking it. After leaving at being at other companies; oracle is literally like where your career can die. If you’re with some clown app or GBU that no one cares about, you’re literally at the mercy of them. I legit stopped even putting in 30 hours a week for my area. I never pushed the company. Never pushed the products. Customers were like “god, we have to deal with oracle”….looking back, I believed people who were making it up as they went along and by that I mean they were clueless about business and tech. Anything to make money. They would sacrifice anything. Many sacrificed lifetimes, losing loved ones and not having families. All for some cr-p dept. my time at oracle was a lesson. A lesson on how to not treat human beings but also not to just hope that people will do the right thing. Lots of evil people who want to steal your sunshine.
Keeping quiet is the Oracle way!
Not always true.
Being laid off from Oracle can come as a surprise to many teams. If you're part of a team that treats you like a commodity, then your severance is probably wrapped in shame, and self worth. If you've been treated like a commodity, why would an ex employee want to talk to a current employee. All that would go through someone's head would be "Why did THAT commodity get to keep job, what was wrong with me?" All of which is the Oracle way. The other bits of silence come when people sign the severance package agreement. Why risk saying something that might get you into trouble.
What state are you in?
If, in fact they want people to leave, to avoid severance payouts, this looming sense of fear, works to their benefit.
And today is the 11th.
It's very difficult to see who's been laid off and which teams have been hit. They certainly want to keep things under wraps, which is understandable. If employee were fully aware they'd be even more likely to leave.