What Oracle’s layoffs reveal about leadership and trust

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It’s impossible to know for sure, but we imagine many of the 30,000 oracle $ORCL Employees who were laid off on March 31 woke up believing it was just another routine day.

In fact, everything seemed great. Three weeks before, oracle reported its best quarter of growth in 15 years: $17.2 billion in revenue, up 22%. oracle is not a company in distress.

oracle sent an email to employees around the world at 6 a.m. ET. The opening lines: “We share some difficult news regarding your position. After careful consideration oracleDue to current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role…today is your last day of work.”

We do not claim to have a monopoly on the wisdom of corporate communications. Organization leaders are allowed to conduct their business as they see fit. But this particular layoff announcement…