#experience

The time will come, and judging by how things look very soon, when chasing cheap, unskilled labor will backfire. There’s only so much core knowledge and experience a company can drain before everything collapses. Sooner or later, corporations will have to relearn the value of skilled labor - years of specialization, hard-earned expertise, and creativity born from experience. AI isn’t replacing anyone, and this obsession with cheap, easily replaceable workers will only lead to ruin. We’re already starting to see it happen.

Eastman continues to layoff tenured employees, keeping less experienced (certainly less paid) employees… regardless of merit. It’s shameful.

They are handling employees so much better these days. It must be some management change or strategy change

I just heard about the terrible accident in Portugal, and this line from the article struck me:

“there's a lack of people with a good memory and who learned from their elders.' 'All of those people have left'

I think this is very applicable to what we are doing in Chevron, and I hope and pray we will not have any incidents caused by inexperience and loss of seasoned professionals.

Simple yes and why or no and why not will suffice. Just curious.

I left Oracle three years ago and now see many former colleagues moving into VP or Senior Director roles. The bar seems lower than a decade ago. Back then, an IC5 promotion required pitching to several VPs; Director → Senior Director often took 5–8 years of hard work; becoming VP could take around a decade for top performers. Today I’m seeing a average guy become regional VP of AI with only a bachelor’s degree, little to no AI experience, and limited overall sales experience (<3 years at Microsoft, and in fact later fired). Has the process changed, or are titles being inflated? Where is this going? Is this a talent development, I guess not...

So many MDs have job postings on their teams for Director or below that require something like an MBA or CFA, yet these same MDs only have a bachelors. I realize this isn’t specific to BNY but as someone in that network I’ve been seeing so much of this lately. As a manager, I don’t care where you went to school - I’m looking at your experiences first and if you interview well and seem like you could fit in. I have an MBA but it hasn’t really been a driver in my career. I wonder how much hiring managers actually pay attention to this.

Hi! I worked for Oracle years ago was laid off, seen all of this before. Been there done that.

Oracle does mass culls and purges very regularly, sometimes more frequently or aggressive than others, but it's the way they have always run the business. They also tend to cut aggressively when they do cut.

As for how to deal with it. If you've just been laid off, don't look back. Let go. It's gone. Focus on you and the future and think very broadly about what your skills are. Oracle likely had you fixated on some small things which really narrows your perspective over time. Don't think about going back unless you become desperate for money and just use it as an interim step. Never try to make sense of what they are doing, why they are doing or what just happened to you. You will go crazy.

For the people who are there, unless you're VERY senior, look outside the company. There are a lot of interesting things going on, and certainly better paid.

I was laid off years ago. I didn't want to go. I was "happy" but a better word was complacent bordering on lazy. In reality I was being underpaid, not appreciated and wasn't enjoying it. It's now worked out a LOT better for me, but make no mistake, it was unnerving, uncomfortable and unsettling at the time. I look back and wish I'd left years earlier. Other people had this same advice but I couldn't bring myself to leave.

Oracle treat employees like abused animals because they can. They know there is no shortage. Their business model allows them to do this financially and the law allows them to. The only way not to be exploited is not to play their game.

Good luck. I hope you all make it through this mentally unscathed or traumatised.