Oracle Employees Are Gossiping About A Tiny 60-Person Layoff

A source tells us that a small layoff in Oracle's European Global Software Support unit has rattled some Oracle employees all over the world, even in the U.S.

Oracle has told about 60 employees that they will be laid off. This includes people in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, our source says.

The business reasons for the layoff were really straightforward and perfectly understandable.

Managers of this unit wanted to hire more people in Romania, where the costs, particularly salaries, are far lower than they are in Western Europe.

But according to one Oracle employee who is still with the company, employees across the Global Software Support unit have been talking about this move.

'The cold mechanics of it angered a lot of people - it's sad," this employee told us.

Employees have been riled up because a European labor group, known as the European Works Council, wrote an opinion about the layoff. The EWC warned that Oracle was deliberately targeting experienced employees who had been with the company on average 13.6 years, using their salaries to hire more than 60 junior people in Romania. Business Insider saw a copy of this report.

This report says that the information about the layoff came from discussions with the leaders of the Global Software Support group, who report to Richard Sarwal, senior vice president and GM.

The report also warned that 60-person layoff was only Phase 1.

Oracle employees are frustrated with this situation for couple of reasons, our source tells us:

• Management hasn't discussed any of these changes with them. They are hearing about the layoffs and the consolidation plans from their colleagues.
• They are also hearing that more than 60 people have been let go.
• Although Oracle has contacted the people affected, it hasn't told them exactly when their last day will be, our source says. The scuttlebutt is that these employees could be asked to train the junior Romanian employees prior to being cut.

While this all sounds nerve wracking for some Oracle employees, we need to point out that, in terms of numbers, 60 people is insignificant for a company with 125,000 global employees. And it's a common business practice to trim employees from expensive areas to a less expensive ones, especially for overhead types of jobs like customer support.

We also understand from the report that the people who've been let go will be invited to apply for other positions inside of Oracle.

Oracle declined comment.