Layoffs at Oracle shocked the global tech industry. Around 30,000 employees were reportedly let go, with nearly 12,000 of them in India. The impact has been immediate and visible online, with social media and LinkedIn flooded with “open to work” posts and personal stories from those affected.
But Oracle is not alone. Over the past few months, several major tech companies have cut jobs as they restructure and double down on artificial intelligence and cost efficiency.
‘Laptop gone, slack gone’
Amid the headlines and numbers, one LinkedIn post stood out for its emotional detail. Nishant Joshi shared the story of his neighbour’s son, who lost his job at Oracle after nine years.
He wrote that the man found out through an email at 6 AM. “By 6:30, laptop locked, Slack gone, everything gone.”
What followed was not anger or panic, but silence.
The man did not tell his family. He got ready for work like any other day and left the house. His mother, unaware of what had happened, gave him dahi-cheeni before he stepped out. “She probably said ‘aaj jaldi aa jaana’… He said ‘haan’ and left.”
Instead of going to office, he sat in a cafe for hours. He came back home, ate, watched TV, and slept. He repeated this for three days. Joshi wrote, “Because going home means answering questions… and he’s not ready for that.”
A father’s question
When the man finally spoke, it was not at home. He told his father while they were out on a walk. He didn’t want his mother to overhear, knowing how she would react, by going to the kitchen and trying to cope in her own way. His father’s response was simple, “Kitne mahine chalega?”
Joshi noted that the one line said everything, “the love, the worry, the papa-wali calculation,” about EMIs, family responsibilities, and the uncertainty ahead.
Layoffs across companies
Across the industry, companies are making similar moves. Meta has laid off several hundred employees across teams including Reality Labs, Facebook, and sales, as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency.” The company is investing heavily in AI models like Llama and expensive data centre projects.
Amazon started the year with around 16,000 job cuts, targeting divisions like Alexa and physical retail to refocus on cloud and AI.
Atlassian also reduced about 10% of its workforce, roughly 1,600 roles, to fund AI development without affecting shareholder returns. Companies like Dell and eBay announced smaller but still significant layoffs.
Layoff trackers show that more than 100 layoff events were recorded in the first three months of the year alone. The United States saw the highest job losses, followed by countries like Australia and Germany.
Sectors such as fintech, e-commerce, and enterprise software have been hit the hardest. At the same time, demand for AI and machine learning talent continues to grow.
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