Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

Beware Management Manipulation

What I have seen from the managers I worked for, is a systematic sabotage of their employees ability to work with other employees on the team. They try to build resentment between people on their own teams. Generally, this has to do with telling different people on the team different things.

Belittle someone's work to another employee, so the other employee joins in with that. To the belittled employee, talk about how nasty the other person is.

Assign a new project to someone on the team, person A, and tell a couple of other employees that that person A will decide who gets to work with them on the new project. Manager does not tell person A that they are making any decision. The other two people begin to s--- up to person A and person A doesn't know what's going on because they were told they were the only person working on the project. The other two people will think they have been slighted. Manager then tells the other two people that person A "just didn't want to work with you".

Manager heaps praise on the most incompetent or laziest employee. Others resent it.

Manager makes up some lie, so-and-so just doesn't want to work with you, so-and-so is just lazy so don't work with them, so-and-so works from home and they don't do anything, etc, etc.

If you are in a group where your manager is telling you things like this, you need to realize that these things are not real, the manager is manipulating you to make sure you don't all get together and disagree with him or worse, demand formal reviews, etc.

One of the purposes of a manager to make sure that the people get along with one another and can function as a unit where people help each other out. I have seen this at other companies, but NOT at Oracle.

Beware what your manager says and how you are being manipulated into isolation.

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Post ID: @OP+RZ4ms4I

22 replies (most recent on top)

In the corrupt areas, the layoffs are making the situation worse. Managers are desperate to keep their loyal thugs around them. They will get rid of productive people to make that happen.

The other thing you need to understand, is that when you have a really incompetent manager, they can't tell who the good developers are. They are like DJT, they have no idea what matters and they think of all the bodies under them as interchangeable. When you think like that, then all that you think matters, is the loyalty of the bodies.

Look at DJT appointing his bodyguard and family members to important positions. This has two components to it: 1) a complete lack of understanding of how things work and how important competent people are, and 2) an obsessive need to have only obsessively loyal people around them.

This is what is going on in TKs org, at least where I was. Incompetent, psycho managers desperately holding on to their loyal thugs.

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Post ID: @8hth+RZ4ms4I

Believe me, no manager wants to lay off loyal, productive people. Sometimes they have no alternative.

Not sure what planet you are working on, but in the area I was in, ALL of the managers are incompetent, they sabotage their people, particularly the good developers, since they are the honest ones.

The goal of my managers was CONTROL. Make sure the people under you do nothing other than what they are specifically told. Don't talk or communicate with anyone outside the immediate group and within the group they work to cause people to not work together.

You must not be in TKs org, or if you are, then you are in a section that doesn't work this way. But this IS going on.

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Post ID: @8rml+RZ4ms4I

Wow! On which (sub-)continent do you work?

My supervisors at Oracle have all been very professional and supportive, including in RIF situations.

I came back after a RIF with no hard feelings at all, happy to rejoin the Mothership. I would probably do it again.

Believe me, no manager wants to lay off loyal, productive people. Sometimes they have no alternative.

So we have to make the best of it.

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Post ID: @8nbz+RZ4ms4I

I recently worked for a manager who had just been laid off from Oracle but is now working in a small company. His style is exactly as others have described here. I bailed. The infection is spreading.

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Post ID: @3zbr+RZ4ms4I

@RZ4ms4I-3olm

Customer support, acquired company but we were rolled under an existing Oracle manager and our former manager from the acquired company was let go.

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Post ID: @3bqz+RZ4ms4I

I guess it depends, but there are some EXTREMELY bad managers in TKs org. Manipulative incompetent control freaks who just manipulate people and pass blame around.

Are you in TKs org? @RZ4ms4I-2zks

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Post ID: @3olm+RZ4ms4I

"One of the purposes of a manager to make sure that the people get along with one another and can function as a unit where people help each other out. I have seen this at other companies, but NOT at Oracle."

I guess we are in the minority based on what I've read on here, but the statement above reflects the way that our group functions. Our manager does what he is supposed to do and acts like, well....what a manager should. Go a couple of levels above our direct manager, and then not so much.

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Post ID: @2zks+RZ4ms4I

My manager constantly withholds the names of people from me. He is always saying, "you know, there's that guy who works in blah", like he can't remember the name. I thought for a while he was just an idiot that couldn't remember anything, but that can't be.

He also takes the names off of emails and sends me the contents only, so I have to reply only to him.

I am being systematically isolated.

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Post ID: @1fwh+RZ4ms4I

Obviously, I'm not going to tell you who my manager is.... LOL.

I just want to warn the people who are being manipulated that this is extremely common. You might figure it out eventually on your own, but only if you question what your manager tells you, and connect with the other people in your group.

Question everything.

Another little trick my manager used was to start a sentence like "Those guys are just....", sound upset or exasperated when he said it, so that you would complete the sentence. Then you feel like it's Ok to continue with the exasperation and in addition, you feel like you and your manager have "synced". Particularly, if after you are done, the manager agrees with you in some way. Usually, he did not overtly say he agreed. Just his tone of voice can give you the false feeling that he agrees with you. Very manipulative psychological trick.

You start feeling comfortable with the manager and you tell him things that you might not normally tell him and he can use those things against you.

At the end of working with this particular guy, I realized that I actually knew absolutely nothing about this manager, but he had gotten a lot of information about me, enough to set me up against people he knew I would not approve of and generate a lot of conflict.

Some of these managers have picked up a million tricks to manipulate their employees. Just question everything, be careful what you tell your manager, he may not actually be who he seems to be.

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Post ID: @1slo+RZ4ms4I

these managers needs to be stripped and beaten at their game badly.

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Post ID: @1ufb+RZ4ms4I

Who is your manager (initials will do) and what LoB are you reporting into?

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Post ID: @1otk+RZ4ms4I

This same management style is rampant in the sales groups too... between teams and across pillars. Well written posts by both @RZ4ms4I-meu and OP'r @RZ4ms4I

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Post ID: @xer+RZ4ms4I

The problem with this kind of management is that it creates enormous dysfunction. The managers that do this are insecure control freaks. They want everything to go through them, so they make sure that no one in the group is working with anyone else.

I complained to one manager about another one doing this, and his response was to laugh and say "divide and conquer".

It's really like, divide and narcissistically control so that NOTHING can happen without the manager in direct control of every tiny action. Development comes to a standstill when this happens, no one can function and everyone is afraid of everyone else, no one asks questions, no one talks to anyone.

Understand what your manager is doing. He is the insecure one, even if he is pretending to be secure.

I worked for 3 manager's in TKs org, All doing the same thing.

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Post ID: @meu+RZ4ms4I

Don't be a baby

Don't be stupid

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Post ID: @jwg+RZ4ms4I

Don't be a baby

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Post ID: @ylb+RZ4ms4I

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