I am not sure if I will be happy or sad if I am not chosen to be laid off.
Advantages of a layoff :
severance package.
possibility of a new job
WARN notice.
advantages of not being laid off:
Disadvantages:
layoff most of the people this time.
As a 19.5 year Sun employee who "retired" in 2008, may I offer some free advice.
"This is not 2008." My mother was in failing health, and I could not get a decent job offer. So I had to rely on savings. But I was able to pay off my mortgage and go debt free. And I was crazy enough and able to dump all my remaining 401k assets into the stock market during the very darkest days when sentiment was totally negative. I have a triple in 9 years, a nice nest egg. TY Bernanke.
I do NOT recommend this for the currently laid off. The Oracle layoff of Sparc and Solaris is not coming from a horrible macro environment--it is a cynical business decision to get leaner and meaner.
In 2017, the stock market is bubbling up to new highs. Stocks are almost all overvalued due to years of FRB monetary accomodation. This will eventually revert to a mean, sooner or later, Keep a higher cash allocation (50% or more) and focus on your career, There should be lots of opportunity to make money through honest work, Dont bet the farm in equities.
Nearly 200 people working for HW/Solaris engineering at Oracle R&D Beijing Center had already been laid off early this year. The remaining people received the notification yesterday. The SPARC/Solaris engineering is truly closing down. No job in China either.
I believe that Russians or Chinese are still working on SPARC, there is a way to think about international job.
My team went through a layoff a few weeks back. My emotions on that day were a mixture of relief and sadness. Since then, seeing all the empty offices, it's just sadness. So, I decided to pull the plug irrespective of all the superficial assurances from the management and should be out in a few days.
It'll be interesting this morning
Assuming you work on SPARC, Solaris or other such technologies, there are a few important advantages of a layoff that you haven't considered:
Your expertise in your focus area is going to be unmatched wherever you go since you come directly from the vendor.
Your voice in dealing with Oracle is going to be unchallenged since you know exactly how to talk to support if they deny problems.
You're working on technologies that are at their sunset, but still relevant. With Oracle withdrawing from them, it means mass migration efforts for customers. What that means for you personally is that you're going to be heavily involved with these migrations, where you'll bring expertise in technology migrated from and you'll learn a ton about what you're migrating to, giving you a chance to learn modern tech with no financial investment.
You know the roadmaps for technologies and this gives your employer a competitive edge.
Oracle is at or shortly after its peak wrt. employee quality and recruiters are still falling over themselves to try and pick up leavers. Cf. ARM attempting to pick up CPU designers. I personally had no problem to get into interviews.
To be honest, I'd be worried if I was kept for sustaining support since that would mean that by the time that the layoff eventually comes (and it will), it would be much worse, since you'd be falling off a very high salary to the very bottom since you'd have to build up your career from scratch.
If you aren't in SCA you won't get WARNed either way.
For those slobbering over their prospective severance packages, keep in mind that not everyone has been with the company 20+ years. Some will only get a few weeks of severance pay. For those, I could see the advantage of being kept on, even if for just a few more weeks. It will give them a little extra time to job hunt.
I have been checking this site since November 2016 and it just takes a few minutes at the start of the day like CNN or FB. Much anxiety though and it did finally happen under the radar as usual
I hope I get the package. I'm close to getting a job offer with a much better and more respected company with a brighter future.
Just ignore the lowlife troll.
aoh very true. How do we pass this and get a real life. Or thelayoff will become another Facebook LOL. Good job guys!
I find it ironic that the people who always ask to get a life or get out of this site and look for a job are the ones who are very active here!
also coming here every now and then doesn't stop me from getting a life / finding a job / or even doing interviews. Same way checking your facebook every now and then and pressing the like button on a cat video doesn't stop you from "getting a life".
come on get a life; just look for a job & move on
you should be happy to be employed this long