Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

“Oracle doesn’t hire programmers, they hire lawyers.”
That’s not completely true. Oracle hire programmers but not engineers and definitely no qa

That is THE most accurate review I've seen anywhere.

Wow. A doozy of a Glassdoor review. What I always thought many engineers felt.

They didn't keep the best , brightest, or those with stable egos. That would have been to pricey.

The reason is not the price. The people that lied about me and took my work as their own were promoted. They cost oracle more in the long run, cause oracle is paying a lot of money out to people who are not doing any work.

Price is not the reason. The reason is a top-heavy company with people who just want to have a flashy title and lots of money. Those people will lie, cheat, steal to stay where they are. They hate and resent the people who do actual work.

You may not be getting credit for what you are doing. Your manager could be lying to others about you and lying to you. You cannot trust anyone.

They didn't keep the best , brightest, or those with stable egos. That would have been to pricey.

I am having to rely on coworkers who are already stretched too thin, and documentation that is sparse and threadbare, if I can find it. Often it is not searchable or understandable to a noob like me. It is missing steps, and often is ten years old, written way before many iterations of the software. There are many things that the documentation refers to but does not explain.

I wrote real documentation for a large project at Oracle, complete with detailed steps and explanations. I was harassed by the documentation person in India I was forced to work with and they complained to their manager about me because I was writing unnecessary information that would cost them time to update, and they didn't want that.

As far as the new approachable Oracle goes, many of the managers and people who really know the software are very unapproachable. Their knowledge is essential, but they really take the attitude of telling the rest of us to go figure it out. That means that the few rock-stars who are willing to help are stretched very thin.

This is the reality: there are very few people in development who actually know what they are doing. There are a lot of fake people who have harassed the people who knew what they were doing in their area so that they left, so that the fake people can get credit for what the other people did.

The fake people can't help you, cause they don't know what they are doing. Instead of trying to learn or honestly responding that they don't know, they make up something or are irritated that they are being asked. They do that all deliberately, to cover up that they don't have any idea what they are doing.

The people you think "really know the software" but are unapproachable, really don't know anything.

I was attacked after writing a very complex application and forced out of the company. The managers involved lied up the chain of command and said that the work I did was done instead by the manager's s—up. You can't win if multiple managers are lying about you.

Everyone is lying. You just need to leave, there is nothing that will fix Oracle at this point.

Sorry, missed a bunch of the "Cons" text:

Cons

There are also a few jerks.

After sitting through several months of training videos that make no sense, I am thrown into helping customers with the most massive piece of software and basically expected to train myself and maintain a high customer satisfaction rating. I am having to rely on coworkers who are already stretched too thin, and documentation that is sparse and threadbare, if I can find it. Often it is not searchable or understandable to a noob like me. It is missing steps, and often is ten years old, written way before many iterations of the software. There are many things that the documentation refers to but does not explain. For example, it may say that a field exists and can't be changed, but no attempt is made to explain what changes will do.

The training videos dump me into very advanced content. It's like throwing a kindergartener into a chemical engineering class. It's not that the kindergartener is stupid, it's just that they have no basis for what is being taught.

The software itself is embarrassing, missing functionality that existed in the desktop version, and I'm amazed at how nonintuitive it is - i.e. don't put the iteration number in the field that says iteration number or the system will reject, and do you see the tiny icon that is greyed out? Yes, that's what you should click on. Counterintuitive is the new intuitive, I guess. What used to be able to be done on one screen is now done in many different places throughout the software, with each screen taking a long time to load. So now users can do some of the same functions, only with more steps. Even things that look like they should work, as in all the pieces are there, don't.

My coworkers, who aren't given raises and are now not allowed overtime, are expected to train me in between working their own SRs and dealing with customers who are understandably impatient. Many of them are impatient, and would rather spend time telling me that I should know something or figure it out, than to teach me and help me understand. I have never worked so hard to learn so little, and when someone is kind enough to really help me, I find myself wondering if I should send them an enormous gift basket. I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to test the software only to find out later that I was going in a terribly wrong direction - I would say misguided, but often I am left to my own devices.

I'm embarrassed when I talk to customers and with a few minutes it's very apparent to them that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm embarrassed that it takes so long to give them an action plan.

When I talk to friends about Oracle, they often say that their software tends to combine new technology in some places with old clunky programming in others, and this is certainly the case. Drag and drop doesn't exist yet and what sounds like a simple task can take hours and sometimes days. As one developer friend of mine put it, "Oracle doesn't hire programmers, they hire attorneys".

Managers are typical of most companies, loyal to the bureaucracy. It seems everyone there has a story of how they've been treated terribly by one of the managers, and I can't say I'm an exception. One manager even glares at me as I walk around the building - I don't even know her!

My computer came in a box along with all the peripherals, and when I didn't know how to set it up I was once again at the mercy of coworkers who already had lots to do. I constantly feel like I'm stealing time from others in order to get my work done and I hate that.

It is company policy that work must be done in the office. I'd love to live someplace cheaper - I'm not getting paid that much and can't anticipate a raise. Often when on calls, one can hear people in the background, sometimes so loud that they seem to be part of the call, and we start trying to respond to them or ask them to clarify, and the person we need to be listening can't be heard.

The building is often an uncomfortable temperature. Some rooms are too hot, some are too cold, space heaters aren't allowed.

As far as the new approachable Oracle goes, many of the managers and people who really know the software are very unapproachable. Their knowledge is essential, but they really take the attitude of telling the rest of us to go figure it out. That means that the few rock-stars who are willing to help are stretched very thin.

When someone comes in to teach a class, sometimes the tech doesn't work and then they're ornery because of the inconvenience. This makes it harder for everyone involved.

No bonus - too big to fail means too big to care, and all the money is going to senior management.

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Complete text:

I have been working at Oracle full-time for less than a year

Pros

There are some nice people that work here, and it's been fun to meet people from many different cultures. There are some people who are willing to help and have made some sacrifices to do so.

The work itself is engaging when I know how to do it. It's fun to help people.

It's nice that I can order the equipment I need without much fuss.

We've had some fun activities.

I have of course heard of the new approachable Oracle and I have some hope that things will slowly get better.

Oracle looks great on a resume.

Generous paid time off.

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Cons

There are also a few jerks.

After sitting through several months of training videos that make no sense, I am thrown into helping customers with the most massive piece of software and basically expected to train myself and maintain a high customer satisfaction rating. I am having to rely on coworkers who are already stretched too thin, and documentation that is sparse and threadbare, if I can find it. Often it is...Show More;
Advice to Management

You will save a lot more money in the long-run if you quit cutting overtime and instead focus on training and complete documentation.

Employees who know what they're doing and are willing to train others are very valuable.

New training content should be evaluated by noobs to see if it makes sense.

You should be willing to give raises and let people work wherever they want.
There is some value in coming into the office, especially for the first few months, but I have learned the most from people who taught me via web-conference.

The knowledge that people gain and the time it takes to train should have you bending over backwards to keep them, because every time someone walks out the door they take a whole lot of knowledge with them and at the moment most of it is not documented.

Get in and learn what we're doing and how your decisions affect us. Undercover Boss is a great example, it doesn't take a genius to see that when a boss can actually see what is going on they can run their company better.

Hire more people, if you can convince them to come.

Start caring.

Indeed it is heartbreaking, and all too familiar. :-(