'Everyone’s a Line On a Spreadsheet:' Inside Oracle’s Mass Layoffs and the Workers Fighting Back
Oracle has laid off up to 30,000 employees as part of a strategic shift toward AI and data center development, leaving many former workers financially and emotionally devastated. Some employees say they were asked to train AI systems that ultimately replaced their roles, and lost unvested stock and benefits overnight. The layoffs have sparked backlash, with former employees criticizing the company's treatment of long-term workers despite its strong financial performance.
- ▪Oracle laid off up to 30,000 employees as it shifts focus to AI and data center infrastructure.
- ▪Employees reported being asked to document workflows to train AI systems, only to be replaced by them.
- ▪Many laid-off workers lost unvested stock, health benefits, and some faced visa-related deportation risks.
- ▪Over 600 employees signed a letter demanding better severance and benefits, which Oracle declined to address collectively.
- ▪Oracle reported its best growth quarter in 15 years despite the layoffs and plans to remain cash flow negative until at least 2030.
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On March 31, a longtime Oracle employee named Jill drove to the hospital for a very overdue back surgery when she received a call from her manager. Jill had worked at Oracle as a technical writer and instructor across three decades, teaching customers around the world about the company’s products. Last year, Oracle had asked her and others on her team to document some of their workflows in order to train the company’s AI systems. Now, her manager told her over the phone, she had been laid off. The sudden firing imperiled not only her ability to pay for post-surgery prescriptions, but her entire retirement plan. For years, she had received high performance scores from her managers and was rewarded with restricted stock (RSUs) in lieu of bonuses.
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