#selection

I concern is not the Layoffs but the manner in which they were done. The percentage was not uniform across teams. Some teams had only 15% while some teams ( Not On-Prem)) had close to 45%. No one knows how people were selected. We have seen some good performers being shown the door. Many new hires shown the door. Entire team let go. This is just madness. People had quit stable well paying jobs and joined Oracle and they were let go before they had the opportunity to prove their worth. It’s not that the Big O is in losses that they had to resort to such cuts. There would be no motivation left among the existing employees to perform well when they see such things happen.

How were the chosen people selected to move vs stay? I’ve seen people with the same job title go in different directions while they do the same thing.

Higher pay?
Remote?
not AI first?
not using enough AI(Copilot)

Seriously. I've seen everything at this point, and none of it makes sense. Sometimes it's the best performer on the team. Sometimes it's someone with a unique skill set. They also love going after people who've been here forever and actually know what they're doing. And then there's always that one weasel who slithers out of doing any real work and somehow never gets touched.

Obviously, it's highly unlikely we lose any directors/managers/seniors if we have any layoffs on the horizon. How do they choose who to get rid of? Lowest paid?

How do people get picked to get let go? I can understand performance and location. But what warrants others? Are people reviewed and discussed prior? Or is it some high up person tells each manager they need to cut x number of people?

Now that the January layoffs have taken place I’m curious to know what the directive or guidance was on those and how managers were asked to select who.
Also, what awaits downstream? I think we all know this isn’t over.

Layoff, RTO, relocations, and rumors are what bring us here. I have a few minutes to share some of my insight moving from individual contributor to tech director and lastly AD. I hear chatter about who gets laid off and who doesn't. A lot of you think that layoffs purge the poor performers, and you're absolutely right. But, what makes a poor performer? Lets say I have 10 people on my team and all of them are great. I am told I have to reduce 2. If I happen to have an approved req for a backfill, I may be able to use that. If not, I have to go into the pool looking for poor performers. Here's a real example. Unfortunately, its one of many. You see, we go through this at least once a year, sometimes more.

10 people, 2 positions. Here were my poor performers.

First was an L2 single mom who was frequently swiping in closer to 9 most days. Great PO but, late. She was a solid performer and had an excellent rapport with her team and stakeholders. Next was an L1 QA analyst. He was a little hard of hearing so sometimes he played his music a little loud through his beats. People complained that they didn't like John's music tastes and that even when he wasn't listening to music, he still ignored them. Poor John's hearing loss and loud music didn't change the fact that he was outstanding at his job, worked 9+ every day and cared about his performance. Last person was an employee whose family lived offshore. He would take long vacations once or twice a year to go back to his homeland. One year, his vacation coincided with an outage that happened a couple weeks after a release. "John #2" was in India and was sleeping when we identified the problem. He did not respond to emails and didn't have cell service. We fixed the problem. No one blamed John 2, much. i was called to the mat and asked why I let him go so soon after the release. I said, A. we release every 2 weeks, and B. I can't control the timing of his religious holidays. He was a good developer though a little full of himself... and he smoked like a fiend. I hated it. Always smelled like cigs. Good performer though. Respected and worked constantly. Except when he was on vacay, that is.

Quiz time! Which one got the pink slip? It was only 1. I had one get out of jail free card to play. I had me a scapegoat that i pulled from another team to fill a backfill. We 'met' at a HH. He was an L2 who had been elevated. Lower salary. UOP bizzness degree. Nice enough but a bit too conversational after a couple beers. Very active social life. Work was a clear second, maybe third priority. He met all the criteria for a good worker who'd be easy to boot in a 10% rif. There's a poor performer. That was 1. Who do you suppose number 2 was? Answer. None of them. I didn't want to have HR probing my selections. Instead, I said that "Tom" was a great developer but he was abrasive at times and didn't like the Agile game. Tom was smart, experienced, and expensive. He exceeded expectations at every turn despite hating to have to attend the agile ceremonies.

Now, we are in 2026. RTO has happened. You can't use that any more. Countless layoffs have whittled down the poor performers. So, look around at your teams tomorrow. You are the pool. One or 2 of you are poor performers and you don't even know it. Its not the person you want it to be. It rarely is. Its the person who believes in AT&T or at least believes in the product. Its the person who wants to hang out or who enjoys HHs with coworkers. Its the guy who busted his hump to get a degree while supporting a family and its the new grad with a CS degree but no actual development experience. Its the PM who sits in the conference room capturing notes for a few minutes too long after the meeting ends. Yes, every one of you could get your walking papers due to the very things that you think make you indispensable. Sorry to be the one to inform you.

As for me, I out in my notice 1 month and a few days after the August "Memo". I refused to have to label an exceptional employee a poor performer. If you are concerned, just remember that your value is not reflected by the salary you earn but how you treat the people you work with.

mgmt will decide who to lay off based on complex factors such as personal disputes, retaliation, preserving dominance and status, rivalries, and internal power struggles, often arising from cycles of poor judgment, limited opportunity, trauma, and loyalty, with layoffs frequently intensifying through social contagion and misidentification within social networks.

#rant #gold #layoffs #layoffselectioncriteria #oracle

This was not based on performance. It was done to save costs and involved random selections to foster a new culture within and, disrupt existing friendships/cliqs

There seems no clear answer to how people or groups were selected. Any inputs?

I’m curious , because I have heard of really smart people being let go in engineering and then some that’s been here 20 + years and then some who were just hired 3 or less years ago. Did managers have a say or were we really selected by someone who doesn’t have a clue who we are ?

For those that have been through this before - how do they typically decide who to lay off?
8 days ago by Anonymous
Post ID: @OP+1k9k2jvnq

Who puts in the hit? Who creates the list who goes? Lvl 7. So is it my boss, or director, or sr Dr?
17 days ago by Anonymous
Post ID: @OP+1k8vsmw7e

How do leaders pick who is laid off
October 8 by Poncho
Post ID: @OP+1k72z9785

How much control your leader has when it comes to Rif?
18 days ago by Anonymous
Post ID: @OP+1k8s3fk4v

Did directors help make the list? Or senior directors only?
20 hours ago by Anonymous
Post ID: @OP+1ka7mgj16

Age and tenure
2 days ago by Anonymous
Post ID: @OP+1ka4n0wta

How does Verizon decide who to lay off?
8 YEARS OLD - November 19, 2017 by Anonymous
Post ID: @OP+QkOh08I
URL: https://www.thelayoff.com/t/QkOh08I

I know there are plenty of trolls, but please, for the sake of the rest of the thread. Just leave the trolling for somewhere else. Have any band fives been asked to give a list or have been given a list?

Does someone know how the selection was made?

Who is making call and how much our direct management influenced the process?

How do support roles usually do in these situations? Thinking L2-L4. It’s my first corporate layoff, so curious if anyone has previous knowledge from past experiences.

Do we know how the selection was made? who made the call and how much our direct mgmt influenced the process?

Council Chairs established and members nominated. Mobility surveys have not closed yet but ppl have already started disappearing from QP (most are involuntary). Staffing & selection process is on by first week of November and we all know how this game works - similar to how PADP is run in this company, rife with politics. Good luck to those who wants to remain employed!

How are selections for layoffs being done, who is flagged and who is doing flagging and based on what criteria?

Any one know how it will work? Who gets final say on who stays and who will go? Will people be forced to move groups? So many questions!

Hess received orientation on PDC this morning - where we will have a Chevron employee representing us during the selection process by sending them a CV and having a quick 30 minute meeting.

Question: has PDC already happened for Chevron - or is the Oct. 8-10 selection notification to fill all open positions in the Oct 1 go-live org chart?

While I’m sadden to not have gotten a role in my selection, I have learned that in round 2 a job has been saved outside of being applied. It hurts to learn the favoritism of upper management to save those that didn’t actually apply to their roles…take that HR!

What happens between the 2nd and 15th? I believe that is when “selection meetings” begin? So that time in between? Nothing occurs?

I’m quite sure advocates have been speaking with job owners during the entire process, especially when the jobs were released.

So is the process like a shark tank? Talent Card flashes up on screen, advocate stands up and addresses the group which has your job owner in it? A bidding war erupts?

Or is this a “we will make the square peg fit in this round hole”, or a “we will fill the square hole with whatever square we can find”, or a “square holes don’t exist because all the square pegs have already been set aside”?

I’ll be ok till the end of the year, I think. I’d rather not move to H-Town as I am actively avoiding it for the time being, however it’s becoming clear the industry is centralizing there. I know…brilliant deduction.

2.5 weeks left. Unfortunately, my “open for work” will always be visible to hiring managers from now on. Loyalty is but a faint memory.

Has anyone received their in-scope notification for wave 2 selection event yet? Houston-based, CTC employee here, and haven’t heard anything yet…

Sitting by the phone the get my wave 2 call…and it occurs to me how little I’m going to get done the next…week? month?…as I negotiate this theatre. Do they even realize what they’ve done here?

Honest question but how does this stuff actually go down from higher up in the company? Like are there just some bean counters in finance that “make a list”, or is there more involvement from the lower-level management? The only reason I’m asking is because we lost a ton of historical and impactful engineers. I was honestly shocked to see how many folks like that were let go 😞.

Also, I can’t wait to read the next Cisco Beat-down chat.. of yeah they disabled it!!! Never mind lol.