Mass Layoffs...question

[supermike80]

Reading about the 30K axed at Oracle.  So I was curious to those of you that may have lived through one of these or know people who have.  Was there some idea it was coming?  Or is it just a full on blindside?  I feel bad for those let go. I saw one guy had been with Oracle for 21 years.  Gotta hurt.

I've worked at big companies and small ones.  Sure there have been some people let go, but never had to deal with a mass even like what happened this week.

[edjr]

1997 very 1st IT job, 1 year in, company closed the office. everyone gone. I was 24, didn’t even know I could collect free money and never did. went into contracting. $25 an hour in 1998. was amazing.

[Red White and Blue]

In the 2009 crash I worked for a midsized company that ket about half the staff go. In our office there was one conference room with glass walls and the partners broke the news there. Every time someone got called into the conference room you knew who was getting laid off.

[cyclone24]

No joke i was a manager at Worldcom in Illinois when all that shiit hit the fan. We all bailed before it all closed down….it was pretty wild.

Sometimes i think you know its coming but not every time

[Sean Mooney]

Company I worked for in 2009 was bought out by another company. They called an all sales force meeting on Wednesday at 5:30pm- via email- for Thursday morning at 9am..Got to work and everyone from HR was there...

We knew it wasn't going to be good

[edjr]

i am so old i lost jobs to dot com and 9/11 and 2008 and cocaine

[Nomad99]

NEC selling computers in a call center....there were rumors.....one day we came in & word got out, if you couldn't log in you were gone. Heads were popping up in cubicles like prairie dogs....

[Fnord]

I was working for a company in the late 90s that sold out to a bigger company. It made the news and there were a bunch of rumors floating around before they announced to us that we'd be able to keep our jobs if we wanted to move to SoCal from the Mpls area. At that point I had no desire to do that, so I took a generous severance package and found a new job.

That job was a grind with a lot of travelling, averaged 70+ hours/wk but made really good money. I burned out after about 2 years, right in time for surprise layoffs of which I was part of due to lack of seniority. I was let go and had to be out that same day. It was a shock, but since I was looking to leave anyway, it worked out well. That one had a much less generous severance, and I was unemployed for almost a year, mostly by choice. I was young and didn't have many responsibilities. Something like that would wreck my life now.

[HellToupee]

1st job out of Northeastern was at Raytheon aka Uncle Ray. Great place to work , everyone knew someone to be working there and lucky for  my dad was my connection . It was in the research division in the same complex as the headquarters. I’d say 90%of the work was done before lunch and the afternoon was spent reading and playing cards, all the old timers and managers were loaded from liquid lunches. Good times until they gutted the place 5 years down the line

[supermike80]

40 minutes ago, Fnord said:

I was working for a company in the late 90s that sold out to a bigger company. It made the news and there were a bunch of rumors floating around before they announced to us that we'd be able to keep our jobs if we wanted to move to SoCal from the Mpls area. At that point I had no desire to do that, so I took a generous severance package and found a new job.

That job was a grind with a lot of travelling, averaged 70+ hours/wk but made really good money. I burned out after about 2 years, right in time for surprise layoffs of which I was part of due to lack of seniority. I was let go and had to be out that same day. It was a shock, but since I was looking to leave anyway, it worked out well. That one had a much less generous severance, and I was unemployed for almost a year, mostly by choice. I was young and didn't have many responsibilities. Something like that would wreck my life now.

That's the part that gets me.  The shock.  I mean if you have an inkling, you can start looking, networking, etc.  But to walk in with bills, responsibilities, etc and find out you are done.  Ugh.  Hate it

[MTSkiBum]

The company I work for had 10% layoffs 2025, 25% in 2020, and 30% in 2015. At one point in 2015 me and one other person had an entire floor to ourselves. 

Every time I knew it was coming. 

50/50 we have a small reduction this year of 5-10% is my guess. Will know more soon based on global conditions.