"Minor" Resource Adjustment in support

The Layoff Radar is going crazy with an bloody Apr 15th within the support organisation reported by many sources on the layoff blog
We have no indication yet of any deployment within Europe, as the EU consultation directive will enforce a strict consultation process, and hopefully better employee considerations.

Let's remind that Support is one of the most profitable activities of Oracle and that many customers, not ready for "extra advanced" customer care services, urge Oracle for a more human-friendly support organisation, taking ownership of problems instead of asking hours investments from the customer in the building support cases.

Please note we do not support the very few hate messages of pushing employees against each others based on their home country. We should all rely on higher standards, and take every opportunity, within the company and outside for building a more responsible world, sharing shared growth opportunities, and reminding as Henry Ford envisioned, that employees are at the end customers.

Few samples of posts from layoff blog :
#787 - Layoff happening at the Oracle Support Center today. Too bad. These are people with many years of experience. I guess they’ll be twicely replaced in India or China, minus the experience of course.

#794 - i got laid off too! Services East Coast! pretty shabby way - 8:01 - got the call, was read some script; 10:05 fedex drops me a pkg from oracle and 12:04 no more access to internal vpn sh*thole.

#803 - Was with Oracle over 10 years and the layoffs (while focused un some senior and upper
management) is hitting all layers — especially in Support.

US supreme court to rule overtime litigation

A number of lawsuits especially in Support, Education and consulting have been filed and won in front of US judges.
This is why recently many salaried employees, who didn’t have to record their time, where moved to hourly waged employees.
Time sheets have to be entered for all hours to generate the pay check.

California Court Decision is particulary interesting as it considers potential economic and equity distortions between californian residents and non residents.
This reminds EU countries considerations regarding their respective strengths or weakness in competitiveness regarding the labor "costs".

To be continued, in better employee investments recognition considering real labor & travel hours...

Oracle EMEA / Italy - Let's refuse unvoluntary layoffs

Please let's all bring our full support to our collegues from Oracle Italy and the other EMEA countries impacted.
We cannot accept to have the Reduction In Force Plan deployment without voluntary-only leave measures.
This has been done in France where HR put a lot of energy with employee representatives to prevent unvoluntary layoffs.



FYI - Oracle is starting stock dividend distribution for the first time in its history simultaneously with tens of employee dismissals.

Social Reponsability - Cannot mix dividends and layoffs

Oracle as announced dividends will be payed to shareholders for the first time in the company history.
We call the company to freeze any layoff projects that might be planned or under deployment, as the announced results do not demonstrate any risk regarding the company viability.
If any workforce reduction would be needed, we requiere a voluntary-leave-only program.
France as successfully initiated such a program with FR HR's Help.
This experience could easily be shared at a larger scale.

Let's build together a better world, a better Society and more socialy responsible company.

... And you know what ? employee morale will bring more success to the company and its customers.

Beeing Fair - Oracle Ethics

Oracle Ethic duties are enforced in many levels, and we all periodically receive the "training refresh" workflow reminders. These duties have already led to employee dismissals.

However you need to be aware that Oracle Corporation is leading many Oracle Holdings in Cayman islands, Mauritus, Luxembourg.

Why would such dark accounting subs be of any interest for a bright Sarbanes Oxley compliant company ?

Layoff times are a crude reality.
The whole of Europe and the CFDT labor union are very dubious about those subs, in a time where highest morale is due to be held worldwide.
We cannot let money flows run lonely without any accountability nor employee nor governemental control.

We encourage every employee and employee rep to enquire for a clear undestanding of those haven holdings activities.

BEA CrossGain International		Cayman Islands
BEA International		Cayman Islands
Oracle International Holding Company		Cayman Islands
PeopleSoft C.I. Holdings Ltd.		Cayman Islands
SPL WorldGroup International Ltd.		Cayman Islands

Oracle Holding Antilles NV
Oracle Global Mauritus Ltd.

Please report any misconduct or ethics violation to our collective for a transparent employee driven investigation - Contact us :


The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act
SEC Report (free account needed), Commercial Ethics Guide, FR Alter Eco CAC40 and offshore islands,
World Bank Policy, The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act

500 + comments on oracle layoff blog

You will find interesting informations on Oracle Layoffs blog, reaching 300 comments world wide.

A few ones below, to give you the opportunity for further reading.

#30 I was let go today, 9 years with the company and countless awards for utilizations and leadership roles in major high profile projects.

#42 Very cheap on severance package: One month for the first year you serve at Oracle and one week for each additional year you serve. 30 days Oracle covered COBRA. Brutal.

#47 Hey #42. Thats a better severance than in the past it used to be 2 weeks for the first year and 1 week for each subsequent year. Larry musta been feeling generous.

#65 I was a bea acquisition employee and we get the bea acquisition package which is 3 months severance, 3 months cobra. The regular package for non-bea oracle employees is 2 weeks for each year of employment, 30 days cobra. (which really sucks for a large company. I am glad I got the bea package) Each large acquisition (peoplesoft, etc) may have a separate type of package that was part of the acquisition agreement.

#74 Re #70, no email just a call from your manager and a Fedex package by noon in the US.

#90 I am on vacation and was on vacation when US layoffs happened. I haven’t got any email from my manager abt layoff. I am wondering abt the process they follow to lay off an employee who is on vacation.

#231 Listen, if you are on a PIP you are history. Been there, done that, put on a PIP ahead of a merger for no reason at all, adhered to the PIP, and was still terminated.

A PIP these days is akin to a shot across the bow of your battleship. They are trying to give you time to get yourself lost from their sandbox. I would take advantage of it.
Never seen a single person who lived to tell about how ‘I was once on a PIP here’.
Sad dealings and not my preferred way to handle things but…..

#255 Rumor (Oracle, India): “One of the world’s largest software products company Oracle is known to have begun linking the payment of its 20,000-odd employees in India with the productive hours they spend in the company. This has given way to salary cuts, ranging between 10 and 50 per cent.”

#379 Oracle has purchased far too many software companies and is quickly gaining the reputation as a software burial ground. They have redundant product lines and are rapidly losing focus on the message they are trying to deliver to customers. Customers of software products Oracle has bought are growing more and more hostile toward Oracle and will close then out from any future business.

#380 Question is what really works.
IF acquisitions and consolidation works for both Corps and customer then its good.
Else it is not a sustainable model.

#507 As a former employee that was acquired by the big O, I have nothing but dismay for this company. Once we were acquired our existing customer base treated us much more hostile, despised the acquisition and put a roadblocks for doing further business. They all indicated doing business with Oracle was painful, slow, ineffective, and viewed Oracle as opportunists that capitalized on the software maintenance revenue streams, jack up the consulting rates, and blow the synergy/integration/red stack non sense at the base. When you swallow up as many companies as Oracle has you will get a case of bad indigestion evidenced by lack of focus and genuinely pissed off customer base.

Reduction in Force wave is coming

Rumors, Rumors, we don't see yet major moves actionned in Europe.
August UK Consulting RIF, and EMEA BEA redundancy RIF were the last ones announced.
However, Economy slowdown is hitting certain areas and we just expect announcement to be made, probably in the consulting/Apps area.
Oracle European Work's Council and Country local work's Council will have to be officially consulted before any redundancy plan deployment.

Still "officially" unconfirmed yet, you will see many goodbyes in the US, dated Jan 9th in the Layoff Blog

Are we talking about 8% of the sales force, 20% of its consulting staff, or just a few hundreds world wide ?

Severance package reported through comments seems very cheap for a company like Oracle : One month for the first year you serve and one week for each additional year you serve. 30 days Oracle covered COBRA (Medical Care).
Given all the extra efforts done worldwide and the company margin, we call for better level of global benefits towards the ex-employees.

Vision 2010 or 1929 ?
Read More :
Oracle Major Layoff - Computer World
Facts and Rumors - The Economist
Spectator October, Spectator November, Layoff Blog, Digital Daily,
India (40 layoffs over 25000)