I want to share my experience of the layoff process at Oracle. I was RIF'd in September 2025. I worked for Oracle for 17 years: 7 years in the UK and then transferred to the US for personal reasons (my wife is American and we wanted to be closer to family). Oracle made that move so much simpler and for all the bad things I will forever be grateful to Oracle. During my time in the US I was relatively high achieving within my team and had carved out a unique and critical DevOps role within my team. It wasn't rocket science, but it was unique and critical and I thought it gave me some protection against a RIF. On the Tuesday before I was RIF'd (Wednesday) I attended a meeting with my VP, Senior Director, Director (I was IC4) and we were planning for some business critical work that coming weekend. This is relevant as no one in those positions had any idea it was coming or we would not have been wasting our time on that planning meeting! The following morning we had another meeting (Oracle and their meetings...) and the VP didn't show up... the senior director didn't show up... the director and the ICs all showed up. I then got wind of something being up around 30 mins after the meeting as people were starting to disappear on Slack. I messaged my Director and he was talking to me on the phone and then he excused himself and had to drop for an urgent meeting that had just shown up in his calendar. He messaged me 10 minutes later to say that he had been RIF'd and his access was going to go away and gave me his personal email and said he was there to help however things worked out (great guy). Then around 30 mins later I received an email from my EVP. It was a boilerplate job and basically said "Today is your last day with Oracle, so long and thanks for all the fish". My Slack etc carried on working and in fact all my access continued working, that struck me as super d-mb.... I didn't do anything with that access but others might not have been so responsible! Around 2 hours later I was locked out of everything and was left numb walking off into the sunset. I received my severance on schedule and that was that. It all just felt very sloppy and isn't the way I would have handled it. An email after 17 years just felt a lot like a "F U". My entire org was laid off (bar a couple a of guys to keep the lights on - who wants to be that guy!!) so it was obviously not personal but it just felt so sloppy.
10 replies (most recent on top)
My experience - Was cut in Sep 2025 after 27 years of my service. With cancer running with a family member , my situation was well know to my Sr. Director, VP & HR. Even during life n death situations, I was working from hospitals, taking customer escalations & getting things done for Larry. Unlucky Tuesday morning got a call & everything in front of my eyes became dark. Now with no medical insurance - what will happen ? How will I pay for $30000 medicines & follow up with doctors each week ? They say when one door closes, 10 other open up - exactly same happened here. I was able to piggy back on my wife insurance & things were back on track. Well well ! as for job - I did not get a reply for any remote openings & technically still unemployed - BUT no bad feelings. 1st was medical treatment & rest I will be able to fix. Now things are stable & will start looking for an opening. My request to my follow EX-ORCL gurus. I am sure most of you have gotten better jobs than at ORCL. How do I leverage from some of you ?? I have SOLID DB, RAC, CRS, EM, Dev & Sustaining experience. But need a referral for a remote opening ..One way for others to guide me could be that I create a dummy E-Mail address & then you all can help me to land a job ? Possible - YES / NO ?? I am ready to work on low pay - but need a better medical insurance & build my savings. Help & guide please
@b4 yes, it was included.
I was let go after 27 years even though there were nothing to complain about my performance. In fact that night the project I was leading was reviewed by upper management and the UX designer to of me it was very awkward when he asked to wait for me to join and the VP told.hum.no need to wait.
@a2 did they pay out your pto hours with your last check? i have about 180 hours so i was wondering how pto works
RIF'd in May 2024 after 12 years. Told two weeks before effective date, at least had time to offload certifications and contacts. Laptop rebooted and MDM purged phone at 17:00 PST on last day.
Oracle had two packages, standard and enhanced. Standard is 2-weeks for the first year and 1-week for every year over six months. Enhanced is 4-weeks for the first year and adds 1-month of COBRA if you purchase a month. COBRA is very costly as Oracle healthcare is platinum.
Final paycheck was time-worked with a second check for PTO. Inflight ESPP was refunded as cash to Fidelity. 401K and other benefits removed from last check but not from PTO balance or severance. 401K transfers locked for 60-days. Stock transfer locked for one year.
Severance appeared in my bank account when FedEx "picked up" the laptop. Severance was taxed in US at over 33%.
I was fortunate enough to secure employment before the end of the COBRA but that position only lasted 15 months before I had to move again. Very stressful! Remained friends with a few former coworkers but most treated me like I had the plague and stopped all communication.
@af No, the way it worked was that my last day of work was maybe 5 weeks before my last day of official employment. At that point you send back your laptop, ID card etc, and are no longer an employe - importantly medical benefits stop (COBRA is absurdly expensive and isn't even worth considering). The severance was paid maybe a week later and by that point I was no longer an Oracle employee and so pension etc wasn't a factor. The amount of tax I paid on the severance was absurd and accounted for maybe a third of it.
@a2 on your severance check did they deduct 401 K and ESPP (if you were enrolled)?
only four weeks base? I had though at leas 2-3 months
Copy/paste from that email
Am I eligible for Severance?
Provided you electronically sign (and do not revoke, if applicable) and submit the Termination Agreement and, as provided in the Termination Agreement, return all Company property including, but not limited to, Oracle laptops, you will receive, under separate cover, the following severance pay:
A payment in the amount of four weeks of base salary for your first year of employment plus one week’s salary for each additional year of employment, based on your most recent hire date, up to a combined maximum of 26 weeks of base salary.
[Note: Employees with six months worked or more in their last year of employment measured from their service anniversary date will be considered to have worked a full last year for purposes of this severance calculation.]
Thank you for sharing.
What was your severance? I hear one week per year employed but also hear two weeks per year employed. @USA.