Big Tech is still laying people off via mass email

As anticipated by recent headlines, Oracle started laying off an undisclosed number of employees early this morning. A report from CNBC put the figure in the thousands, while a post on Blind—the anonymous workplace chat app—suggests that as many as 11,000 employees might have been impacted.

According to reports across social media and on Blind, employees were notified about the layoffs through a mass email that was issued at 6 a.m. ET today. (Oracle declined to comment on the layoffs when reached for comment by Fast Company.) 

“We are sharing some difficult news regarding your position,” the email reportedly read. “After careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change. As a result, today is your last working day. We are grateful for your dedication, hard work, and the impact you have made during your time with us.” The email also included instructions on termination paperwork and requested that employees share a personal email address for further communications. 

It’s not exactly unusual for Big Tech companies to inform employees about layoffs through a mass email. Since the pandemic, employers have become increasingly comfortable with making layoff announcements over Zoom and through mass emails. Companies like Tesla and Intuit have conducted layoffs via email and calendar invite, respectively, in the last few years. Like Oracle, many companies immediately shut off access to work email and other internal platforms after notifying workers about layoffs, typically to protect against potential retaliation or legal action.  

Even compared with other companies, however, Oracle’s approach to these layoffs seems especially impersonal. 

The email announcement that went out to employees did not come from the company’s co-CEOs and was simply signed “Oracle Leadership.” There was also little transparency in the email about the rationale for the layoffs, aside from a vague mention of “Oracle’s current business needs.” (In fact, Oracle has historically avoided large-scale layoffs of this nature, opting instead to do gradual, rolling job cuts.) Based on social media accounts and the contents of the email, it doesn’t sound like the company asked managers to conduct live conversations with affected employees—something that experts say can help blunt the impact of an email missive. 

While Oracle did not offer a clear explanation for the layoffs, previous reports suggested that the company is trying to offset its sizable investment in AI. Since closing a $300 billion deal with OpenAI last year, Oracle has taken on a significant amount of debt to finance new AI data centers. According to an earlier Bloomberg report, some of the layoffs were also intended to target roles that were deemed less necessary due to artificial intelligence. 

Oracle is, of course, not alone in using AI as a justification for layoffs—and like its peers in the tech industry, these job cuts seem to be driven by the company’s bottom line rather than AI replacing jobs outright.

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