20+ year employee here from Support. I'll simply state this - had about 5 solid years out of the company and then you could see the downhill slide. Phased out bonuses and pushed salaried employees to be hourly long before that. 3% raise every 3 years (so effectively 1% a year) that puttered out about 8 years ago when they went to stacked ranking. That was the beginning of the end as only the top 5% - 10% of teams were rewarded and that was with RSUs (presumably to instill loyalty through vesting). Stacked ranking actually would take 16 member teams and only two would get Exceeds or Outstanding. 3 tops. That left 13 team members just bumbling hearing the words "o focal this year".
The deal su-ked for the bulk of employees and even the ones that went above and beyond didn't do well as RSUs became the only reward and raises - kaput. No cost of living increase at all in the highest inflation we've seen in 50 years. It was a raw deal but at that point you just pivot and make it comfortable. I took every advantage over Oracle that they exercised over me. I still did fine on reviews and was still top 20% contributor but that was done with the bare minimum of effort. Oracle wasn't "family" and I never let myself believe it was anything more than transactional. I used the benefits I had liberally and took what was available simply because if you wanted a "reward" it was best to simply decide what that was and execute it oneself. Clearly that didn't mean anything financial but overall it worked out. I wasn't butt hurt when I got the email the other day simply because I had truly checked out about 2012. I just looked at it like a nice 13 year annuity where I gave them minimal effort and they rewarded me with nothing for that effort other than continued employment. I did the math once and based on the time I worked there I actually made less in present day dollars than I did when I started. I didn't never get a true raise but I made less walking out the door than I did walking in. Crazy. Who structures a company like that? I know, many do but not the great ones. Microsoft tried it in the late Balmer years and it failed an an epic manner and they corrected course.
Can you build a successful company and culture like that? Probably not. I think these layoffs ki-l morale of anybody still within Oracle and any new recruits or offers will be very, very cautious about making a move. I truly believe to create something great you have to treat your people great. They did up until about 2003-2004. Gradually it became worse and worse and worse until they have what they have now.
Again, no hard feelings here. I think in my career there I dodged something like 15 layoffs but this truly was the one you didn't want to miss. The people left (on my team at least) to turn the lights off will be miserable as they are now massively understaffed. AI and maybe H1Bs or offshoring may provide some backfill but who knows and who cares. I wish the whole experience was better from start to finish and I could have had a career there I was proud of and ended with something akin to a gold watch, but that was never in the cards at Oracle. I simply bet on the wrong horse but I can honestly say I made the best of it, liked the gig and just never gave more value to Oracle than they gave to me. Again, transactional and you can't miss something you never cared all that much about.