Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

I am a manager in Oracle Engineering team (let me not specify which one). One thing which i can say for sure is that yearly reviews are useless. The way it works is :

1. Every year there is a stack ranking exercise, where every engineer/PM/Sales/IC is ranked against each other under the same director

2. This is a closed door exercise, not related to performance review

3. Good managers put a compelling case for their employees, bad managers wait for happy-hours to start and are disconnected with the outcome , except maybe 1 or 2 of their favorites showing up in the rank

4. Some managers make a mocking of it by rating each of their employees with a rating of 5 (highest) , and let the group decide which ones should be downgraded.

5. The inputs are fed to your director, who keeps a copy of it.

When it comes time for bonuses :

1. Each manager gets a pot of money

2. They decide how to divide the money. Each manager has a different way, but mostly they try to keep an equilibrium in the team, and kind of lean towards high performers, but not by too much

3. The annual review has nothing to do with this entire process

In the end, the morale of the story is that annual review has nothing to do with :

1. Stocks, bonuses, raises

2. Job security

3. Visibility to higher ups

The only place annual reviews "might" affect you is when writing a promo doc , and stating "rated 4 or 5 for last X years". Other then that, its something to be proud of, and thats it.

The HR dept is probably running thin too. So they may hve no time to do all that pesky paperwork for annual reviews. This is a ghost crew organization cutting costs. If not, then HR is overhead that's getting a free ride with less paperwork. :)

We have not had reviews for over 5 years or so. Totally random according to VP. Disgrace that joke of a HR department does not enforce this .

Are you in sales? If so and you aren't selling then a PIP makes perfect sense. Oracle is cracking down on non-performers to avoid paying severance.

Just heard from my manager that they aren't doing reviews anymore.

Reviews are not gone. Just had my annual review with my direct manager. Do agree the review seemed totally disconnected from job security, advancement or compensation,

What pillar are you in? Does the official PIP come from HR? Are they 90 days?

From what I've heard, Oracle has officially discontinued its annual performance review process. Given that (1) many people haven't received them with any consistency and (2) the review seemed totally disconnected from job security, advancement or compensation, it really isn't much of a loss. IMO, it is just a bigger part of making it easier to get rid of people as there will no longer be a paper trail for an employee to use as an argument for an unfair or discriminatory firing/layoff.

The replacement to the review process is the talent profile. Everyone is supposed to use HCM to state their skills, achievements, etc. so that management can "help with career development, team training, etc." Yes, this isn't a review at all and is just a matrix/document for each employee to maintain. Translation: This is yet another data point in HCM that will be used to create layoff lists. If you are looking to keep your job at Oracle for a while, put in some effort on creating a compelling talent profile.

PIPS take too much time. Layoffs will continue. They will change the package.