Thread regarding Oracle Corp. layoffs

Sorry, but this part:

If he ignores the notification, after a while HIS manager gets notified, and so on up the chain.

does not happen. There are no consequences for not doing reviews. I filled out the review, he just didn't bother and he doesn't have to if he doesn't want to. No one is paying any attention.

Things work better where you are, but nobody makes the managers give reviews.

"You should insist on formal reviews. This is the only way to be sure you are being evaluated against your peers honestly.

How?"

All of you saying stuff like this seem to be forgetting that Oracle is a "self-service" company - and that includes the annual review process. If you haven't had a review in x amount of years, then it's your fault. Now any decent manager will remind the team when it's time to fill out your annual review, but he doesn't have to do that - just like he doesn't have to (and shouldn't have to) remind you to regularly go to MyDesktop to keep your laptop software up to date.

YOU are responsible for initiating the annual review and evaluating yourself using the EBS Self Service review application. When you are done with your part, you submit it and your manager gets a workflow notification that tells him he is supposed to complete his part. If he ignores the notification, after a while HIS manager gets notified, and so on up the chain. Read the instructions for completing your annual review, it's all in there.

Of course there's no guarantee that your manager will put any time or effort into completing his part, other than randomly picking numbers out of the air without any thought or facts/comments to back it up.

We all know that the reviews are pretty much a waste of time though, as they do not seem to factor into anything as far as raises, promotions, layoffs, or anything else is concerned.

Even if a formal review was requested, I don’t think my manager(a director) would know how to properly assess anyone unfortunately.

Yeah, I hear what you are saying. The director I work for has no idea what he's doing. It might be just too far gone to do anything. Oracle is a sad place.

Even if a formal review was requested, I don’t think my manager(a director) would know how to properly assess anyone unfortunately.

You should insist on formal reviews. This is the only way to be sure you are being evaluated against your peers honestly.

How?

I don't know. I think that maybe it's just not possible anymore. You would have to work together with other employees in some way.

haven't had a review in probably 6 years, tks org

This was in TKs org.

@RXvepko-2wbe

OMG, that's messed up! Not ALL of Oracle is quite THAT bad. Mind if I ask what product you work on?

I think the only way to insist on a stable review process is to get together with other employees and make some kind of formal statement. If you do it alone, you will be next on the layoff list. It's everyone or no one.

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.

You should insist on formal reviews. This is the only way to be sure you are being evaluated against your peers honestly.

How?

Very true. The review process is a farce. There have been instances of managers misusing this and threatening employees with below average ratings if they don't quit. HR consider themselves as a support function and a business enabler. Hence , even though they roll out the review process/insist that managers do the reviews, it ends up being of not much help when the employees really need them. At best , it provides a paper trail for HR in case of legal issues with former employees.

You won't be disappointed if you look at this as a compliance/legal process to safeguard the company and not as an employee retention/career growth tool

Reviews should be done at Oracle, regardless of whether or not there are bonuses or raises to give out.

The review process is important because clearly defines any issues between an employee and a manager. If the manager has issues with the employee, they should be clearly stated upfront on the review, the employee then can see what the manager's view is of them and has a chance to respond or defend themselves against any issues.

What happens instead at Oracle, is they have discredited the whole process. This means that if the manager dislikes something you did, you will never be told. They then can pass lies around behind your back, get other people to attack you, etc, etc.

There is a word for the lack of formal upfront and honest reviews at Oracle and that word is "corruption". The management is corrupt in the way it treats its employees. There are bonuses going out, they just go the manager's loyal thugs, who in the absence of any normal review process, can be rewarded for things other than actual work.

Oracle is a sick, sick company with corrupt and dishonest management who mistreat good employees and cover it up with the waving of hands and the discrediting of the only process that protects good employees from them.

You should insist on formal reviews. This is the only way to be sure you are being evaluated against your peers honestly.

Our group didn't do reviews at all this year as it was said that the policy was changed and they weren't needed. The behind the scenes explanation was...

1. They never mattered and were all for show.

2. The only thing that did matter was stack ranking. That was done behind closed doors and the influence of the direct managers was small to nonexistent.

3. Layoff lists were being made based on stack ranking, alignment with Cloud revenue and who knows what else.

we had to do reviews

efforts and quality were inconsistent at best

some years we were told to focus on schedules and forget the reviews while in other years, we were told to do them

in all cases, I saw no correlation between results versus anything with career here

This entire thread demonstrates from many directions the total lack of meaning for any kind of "performance appraisal" foisted on us by Oracle. I also had a manager who just put numbers down with absolutely nothing to back them up. And of course, those numbers were typically lower than the numbers provided - that were provided with much documentation, measure, and justification.

It all just continues the story of no raises or promotions except to those who are "buddies" (despite demonstrating over and over that you've performed at equal or greater levels), total laziness on the part of management, and total lack of integrity with this company. The ones at the top don't care, and the ones in the middle don't either. You can be extremely effective for "the bottom line" - and in the end, that "bottom line" floats upward only in compensation.

This is a miserable corporation to have worked for. I have other large and medium tech companies to compare it with, so not just talking out of my a&s.

Is there anyone out there who was getting reviews? TKs org.

Sounds like it just wasn't happening for anyone.

What reviews?

I've never had one in 2 years.

I thought the annual reviews are no longer part of corporate policy?

If you are leaving Oracle, even on a layoff, it might be wise to print your performance reviews.

how will that help? they can just easily accuse you of doctoring your copy if it's only got numbers but no comments to back them up.

+1 I do not think these matter at all. I always clicked on random boxes in self-appraisal forms, manager did the same plus some meaningless sentences.

I think many managers didn't bother because they knew the reviews were irrelevant. They had no impact on getting raises or promotions.

A corollary question.... the last manager I had did not give me any reviews at all. Wondering if he can put them in after-the-fact? Not sure why he was doing that... Perhaps to demoralize me to make me leave? Any thoughts?