By Maybelyn B. Paden
Publication Date: 2026-05-11 14:13:00
Oracle’s decision to cut around 20,000 jobs worldwide on March 31 has sparked a wave of anger from former employees who say the company denied them stock awards worth up to $1 million (around £730,000) and offered them severance pay as it steps up its efforts on costly AI infrastructure projects.
The mass layoffs, communicated via company-wide emails under the banner of “Oracle Leadership,” affected employees in the U.S., India and other international centers as part of a broader restructuring.
According to reports from TechCrunch and The Times of India, the termination notices were received as early as 6 a.m. Eastern Time, informing employees that their positions had been eliminated effective immediately. Many people only realized they had lost their jobs when their access to Oracle systems suddenly stopped working.
One former employee told TechCrunch he only learned he had been fired when he tried to log in remotely. You said: “I logged into the VPN and it said “This user doesn’t exist…”
