New Delhi: At around 5:30 pm on Wednesday, a cluster of young engineers whispered among each other at a cigarette stall outside Salcon Rasvilla, a three-storey commercial complex right behind Saket’s Select Citywalk mall. They were all talking about what had happened on the first floor. Until a day ago, it had housed a buzzing Oracle office but now large sections of the workforce had been gutted.
It started with an early morning email on Tuesday, said a young software engineer who still works at Oracle.
“He received it at exactly 6 am,” the engineer told ThePrint on condition of anonymity. “There was no call, no information from his manager. Just an email with a DocuSign link asking him to sign his termination letter to receive severance. By the afternoon, he was locked out of Slack, email, and finally his laptop. It was ruthless.”
Since late March, the software company has laid off around 30,000 employees globally, including approximately 12,000 in India. While this round of redundancies is the company’s largest yet, it also laid off over 3,000 people worldwide in late 2025. Employees claim more mass layoffs are imminent.
The layoffs come as Oracle ramps up spending on AI infrastructure to compete with rivals like Alphabet and Amazon. The company has not explicitly linked the cuts to AI replacing workers, but reports suggest the move is tied to shifting resources towards AI investments.
In the email sent to staff, Oracle informed employees that “certain organisational changes” had been initiated. “Because of these changes,” the mail added, “a decision has been taken to streamline operations, and as a result, unfortunately, the position you currently hold will become redundant.”
Outside, at the cigarette stall, three young engineers from a neighbouring company eyed the building as if it were an omen and spoke in hushed tones about what has become a familiar fear in India’s tech corridors.
“AI is getting worrisome,” one said. “Appraisals have been pathetic for two years now. One boss keeps his budgets low so his team looks less replaceable, but none of it matters now; they’re cutting anyway.”
An equal-opportunity hit
Layoffs at Oracle generally follow a predictable sequence, said another Oracle employee who escaped the latest round of cuts.
“First it was the India Development Centre, then the Mexico Development Centre. Today it’s Oracle Financial Services Software. If the pattern holds, EMEA (Europe, Middle-East, Africa) could be next. No one knows if there’s more coming,” he told ThePrint.
While Oracle hasn’t released any official information on the severance package, a post on the Reddit forum r/employeesOfOracle claimed that employees in India are being given 15 days of salary per year of service, plus 15 days ex-gratia, along with other benefits.
On X, investor Jassneet Singh wrote about a conversation with a friend who had been let go.
“Thankfully he has around 18 months of financial safety net and his kids’ education covered for three years. But he said something that stayed with me: ‘I’d rather earn ₹12 lakh and take the rest as benefits. I just don’t want to pay tax.”
A friend at Oracle got impacted in the layoffs.
Was on a call with him for about 30 minutes. Thankfully, he has ~18 months of safety net and kids education taken care of for 3 years, something we’ve discussed way too often.
He’s really good at his work. But one thing he said…
— Jassneet Singh (@jassneetsingha) April 1, 2026
There’s a climate of fear in the office now. There’s a sense that nobody is safe.
The engineer whose friend had been fired said the cuts seemed indiscriminate. Not only senior employees but even freshers and mid-level engineers have found themselves suddenly out of work.
“We sat next to each other the day before, planning what work we’d finish the next morning. Nobody thought freshers would be hit,” said the young employee. “It doesn’t cost the company much compared to senior people. But they did. Teams with 20- and 30-year veterans were gone. Some entire units disappeared.”
After the layoffs, several employees said on Reddit that their managers had called to explain why the cuts took place and to ask them not to speak to the press. The engineer said he got such a call too.
“Some teams have even informally asked those who have not been impacted in the layoff to not speak to those who have been laid off,” he said.
Also Read: How zigzag careers can save your jobs in the era of AI
‘Everyone feels replaceable’
Since the layoffs, some axed Oracle employees have recounted their experiences on LinkedIn. Hrishikesha Narsha, who spent 16 years at Oracle and rose to Group Manager (Software Development), described how he was still reeling from the shock.
“It is a strange transition to wake up and realise your daily priorities have shifted overnight. My mind still instinctively drafts to-do lists for projects that are no longer mine. I’m navigating the same heavy questions as many others—thinking about family, finances, and the future. Rather than focusing on how this chapter ended, I am choosing to celebrate everything the last 16 years gave me,” he wrote.
A thread on the subreddit r/employeesOfOracle soon filled with testimony after testimony from Oracle employees around the world.
Another Reddit poster @dhoomtananana, apparently from India, said he wasn’t fired but was filled with rage nonetheless.
“I wasn’t RIF’d but someone I know and care for, was laid off after 30+ years with an email sent early in the morning,” he wrote. “Whether we like it or not, the US is the most powerful country in the world and thus its citizens have more power to determine the fate of the world. Our countries get bombed, coerced and bullied into silence and compliance. Our fuel prices are through the roof. We are getting laid off on top of this, in this economy.”
The employees who are still working for the tech giant say they are keeping their heads down and mentally preparing for the worst.
“People fear their severance will be affected if they talk,” one said.
Outside, at the cigarette stall, one of the young engineers spoke with weary resignation.
“After this, everyone feels replaceable,” he said.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)