pjeMar 31

Oracle slashes 30k jobs with a cold 6 a.m. email

https://rollingout.com/2026/03/31/oracle-slashes-30000-jobs-with-a-cold-6/

Oracle slashes 30,000 jobs with a cold 6 a.m. email

Oracle began laying off up to 30,000 employees globally, notifying them via a 6 a.m. email from "Oracle Leadership" with no prior warning from HR or managers.

Rolling Out
Show threaddafelstMar 31

More victims of AI.

Not actually of "AI is replacing jobs", more "oh shit we are spending too much and the product isn't good enough for us to ever make a return on our absurd over-investment".

Show threadmuskstinksMar 31

I don't think its that easy.

Look at their employee numbers over the years:

(ai generated):

Oracle Corporation Employee Count (2010 - 2025)

Legend: Each '' represents approximately 4,000 employees.

Year | Employees
------------------------------------------------------------------
2010 | (105,000)
2011 | (108,000)
2012 | (115,000)
2013 | (120,000)
2014 | (122,000)
2015 | (132,000)
2016 | (136,000)
2017 | (138,000)
2018 | (137,000)
2019 | (136,000)
2020 | (135,000)
2021 | (132,000)
2022 | (143,000)
2023 | (164,000)
2024 | (159,000)
2025 | (162,000)

Note: Oracle's fiscal reporting for the full year 2025 ended on May 31, 2025.

They clearly did something crazy at corona and undoing this as a lot of companies did before already.

Show threadCoolGuySteveMar 31
Even at 100k employees I’m still dumbfounded by that number. What do all these people do all day?
Show threadstackskiptonMar 31

Oracle sells alot of software that is accompanied by hordes of consultants to set it up.

Last F50 I was at did a PeopleSoft migration. We probably had 400 Oracle employees pass through the doors over 2 years helping to get it off the ground.

Most Enterprises don't just buy software and that's it. They buy software + support to implement it for their business.

Show threadCoolGuySteve
Sure but what did those guys do all day? 400 people is a lot of people
Mar 31 at 3:21pmWeb
Show threaddavidwMar 31
"Well look, I already told you! I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to! I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people! Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?!"
Show threadirl_zebraMar 31
Creating powerpoints. Presenting the powerpoints to others in synchronous meetings.
Show threadkadushkaMar 31
Probably had a lot of meetings
Show threadstackskiptonMar 31

Write code to connect this system with that system. Teach people what setting does what. Integrate with Entra ID. Create custom reports that hordes of Executive on our side want. Scale out the system from undersized nodes we originally gave it. That's all I picked up by just listening to them. I wasn't involved in the project, just sat nearby listening to it.

This is extremely customizable software that is designed to pretty much run your entire business and touched by over 40k employees. It requires a ton of care and feeding. There is plenty of people who dedicate themselves to PeopleSoft. Zip Recruiter is showing 5 jobs near me for "PeopleSoft Administrator"

Show threadodyssey7Mar 31
The need to teach people what setting does what is a sort of consulting moat that AI dismantles when it can access the right context.
Show threadzdragnarMar 31
They don't make any of the documentation for those settings easy to find or understand because the support contracts make them so much money.
Show threadchasd00Mar 31
The training team and what's called 'Change Management' for an F50 company that's spread across the globe implementing a new application like an ERP could be 100 people by itself. It's extremely complex and hard to do those kinds of projects which is why many ERP migrations take a decade to complete if not fail entirely.