Maybe its a culture change. Every Sun employee who was not be retained by Oracle received a live phone call from the direct manager. "Oracle will not be offering you a job". Then you received correspondence about the separation arrangements, which, for directors and V.P.s were consistent with the "change in control" provisions. Maybe the numbers here made personal calls difficult, but feels pretty cold.
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@ae that was why I left Oracle. I had been at Sun, and although I didn’t get laid off during that robocall episode, so many good colleagues did, it disgusted me and I knew it was time to move on.
You have no idea. I was in comms at the time and I saw the videos the execs didn't disseminate. McNealy had a heart. PTB didn't give a fu-k. McGowan looked like he had a g-n to his head. I will never forget McGowan's face as he read the script. Again, nothing was disseminated.
@a7 I knew many people laid off in 2017 by the Edward Screven robocall. Many had decades of service with Sun. That was the coldest BS I'd ever seen. Until now, I guess.
@OP This was a digital layoff of about 18000 people at the same time.
If people knew just how large the Sun SPARC installations are across the globe it would blow their minds. Oracle is still selling M8 equipment into major customer sites, and that equipment needs to be supported for many years to come. I can't imagine how that will happen with the Solaris/SPARC organizations being gutted. Probably the single best acquisition LE ever did, a shame they just tossed it out the window. I remember when DC in ME was pitching all sorts of ideas to pivot M9 towards GPU, ML, Accelerators (back when it wasn't fashionable). ES just cancelled the entire thing, uninterested. Guess he wasn't all that visionary given how the AI thing turned out.
@a4 SUNW was still profitable, just not like that. After this gutting I don't see how they will be able to keep the lights on. If I was as SPARC/Solaris customer I would immediately prepare to migrate to a new platform as I don't see how it will be supported.
@a2 Yes, the Big 2017 Oracle layoff of thousands of ex-SUNW employees was done via FedEx packet but the announcement came via email instructions to attend a teleconference at which a recorded robot-like Edward Screven read a short prepared statement.
SUNW is still a ca$h cow for ORCL generating a total of $41b of pure profit for ORCL bottom line. Still the most successful Oracle acquisition.
Personally, I prefer an email.
If you've ever been laid off on a Zoom call, or in person, you know that it's just a robotic script they read where they don't give you any details. You do your best to act professional - fighting off anger or tears. You can barely focus on what they are saying.
I'm glad I can just go for a silent walk, then sit on my couch and reflect on what's next. I don't want to jump through hoops just to get bad news.
I worked at Oracle from 2005 to 2017 and managed to survive several rounds of layoffs. Some of them were done by simply sending a FedEx envelope to those affected.
A form letter via email. What a cowardly lack of respect.
Kind of sums up being an Oracle employee, huh?