Is it over yet? Nope the layoffs will continue through June 1st 2018 in a prolonged year long reorg. Its built this way by design. Its like ripping the band aid off painfully for 365 days. But wait, it gets worse. Yep straight through the holidays... in spurts and chunks. Apparently rumor is not everyone has been let go ... who will be let go for the holiday cycle... just yet.
Its like Oracle is trying to win an award for the "worst layoff policy ever." Lets take a look at advice from the experts:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3040061/fired-for-the-holidays-is-it-acceptable-for-businesses-to-downsize-in-december
WHY IT’S INADVISABLE
Some of our HR experts agree that it’s better to hold off on downsizing if a few more weeks of salary won’t affect the bottom line too much. Layoffs during the holidays can actually do more harm than good for various reasons:
Layoffs Aren’t Always The Answer
Peter Cappelli, director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources, says that there is no evidence that layoffs in general actually help the financial performance of companies other than when there are recessions or there is really not enough work to do. He believes that employees are only likely to accept layoffs as a reasonable response if a company is truly crashing. “If it is simply to try to improve financial performance, (people) aren’t as likely to accept (layoffs), and of course, they won’t work anyway,” he says.
Oracle is doing fine financially, so why the layoffs? It does look as if people are not accepting of this and it is probably affecting employee performance in a negative way.
Survivor Guilt
Layoffs can have perceivable negative effects on morale, Cappelli explains. Not only do remaining employees feel bad for those laid off, but they are also likely to feel that they may be next.
“So they tend to freeze up, focus on the possibility of finding a job elsewhere, and they don’t get their own work done,” he says. “All that is likely to be worse during the holidays when they are more focused on their obligations to others because the costs of layoff seem bigger.”
Odds are no one is putting in any effort at work right now... oh hey.... Oracle execs get that. Mandatory vacation time!
People Are More Likely To Lash Out
Philippe Weiss, a managing director of Seyfarth Shaw at Work, has worked a great deal with unemployment matters and liability-prevention strategies. He says plaintiff lawyers have told him that they often see an uptick in calls from angry former company employees who are particularly incensed at the holiday-layoff timing.
“(Waiting until after the holidays) lessens the impact of the termination for employees who are looking for a reason to lash out with litigation, social media attacks, or acts of workplace violence,” says San Diego-based HR, training, and security consultant Steve Albrecht.
Albrecht believes that getting sued by an employee for wrongful termination is harder to defend to labor law juries when the layoffs happen on Christmas Eve. “Some compassion in the beginning can save expensive hard feelings later.”
Hmm anyone fired for being old? Female? Any old females get laid off? Anyone upset?
People Often Know It’s Coming
Waiting for a long period of time before implementing the decision to lay off employees adds an element of risk for the business explains Spires. “Confidentiality can be compromised as news may leak, resulting in a negative impact to a broader workforce who then all begin stressing about rumored changes,” he says.
Psychologically, people struggle more with not knowing and wondering if it’s going to be them than they do after they know says Thacker. “After they know, they can begin to full out problem solve,” she says.
How about layoffs every quarter for a solid fiscal year? How about setting aside 1.1 billion dollars for employee severance packages. Then when the rumors come out calling it "Fake news" and then proceed to do exactly what the rumors said. How about laying off people during the holidays and then chuckle about it.
I'd say Oracle has done a fantastic job of demoralizing its workforce.