Impact of AI on layoffs

The layoffs are still ongoing, and Oracle looks like to be the posterchild for bad behavior although management did say the layoffs were for creating additional money to spend for AI infrastructure.

At least that is how I understood it.

Here’s the link to the Times article titled “‘Everyone’s a line on a spreadsheet:’ Inside Oracle’s mass layoffs and the workers fighting back”: ‘Everyone’s a Line On a Spreadsheet:’ Inside Oracle’s Mass Layoffs and the Workers Fighting Back – AOL

Here are some salient details about the Oracle situation:

• In March 2026, up to 30,000 employees were laid off.
• The layoffs appear to be to redirect cash towards AI infrastructure.
• The company is doing well – it just reported its best quarter in 15 years!
• Long-term employees were let go, some just before vesting their stock that were handed out instead of bonuses.
• Also, those long-term employees were older, raising suspicions of age discriminations.
• “Ellison bragged onstage that the company’s programmers were no longer writing code.”

Employees were forced to use AI

Now employees are thinking that the forced use of AI was to train the models so that AI could replace employees rather than augment them.

A lot of them mentioned that the AI sometimes helped but also quite often caused more work as a lot of rework was required. Some people had to work longer hours to correct or improve the AI results.

In addition, supposedly management demanded more work, under the mistaken (?) impression that AI was going to improve productivity.

“‘Easier’ was a euphemism for less people doing more work,” he says. “It’s not that we are trying to let people go home and relax.”

Andrew R Chow, ‘Everyone’s a Line On a Spreadsheet:’ Inside Oracle’s Mass Layoffs and the Workers Fighting Back – AOL, Times, 5/1/2026

Cheap separation packages

To make matters worse, the separation packages were deemed cheaper than what were given out in the tech industry. This is why I say this company may be the posterchild for bad behavior. The cheapness was notable.

“…the company’s offer falls well below industry standards. The company is offering four weeks of base salary to start—one quarter of Google and Meta’s recent offers—plus an additional week per year of tenure, which is half of Google and Meta’s offers. Microsoft, in greater contrast, offered to buy out about 7% of its workforce.”

Andrew R Chow, ‘Everyone’s a Line On a Spreadsheet:’ Inside Oracle’s Mass Layoffs and the Workers Fighting Back – AOL, Times, 5/1/2026

So, what do you think workers will feel?

The ongoing layoffs of people in the midst of profitability and huge outlays for AI infrastructure must be causing rising employee resentment.

I do worry we’ll have another Luigi Mangione moment. Unionization and strikes are okay as a counterweight to executive management and shareholders actions. We need a counterbalance to the ultrawealthy to try to reduce the increasing wealth inequality. I rather have that than some kind of nasty revolution.

Actually, executives may actually be aware of the risks because I saw a video where Andrew Yang (of universal basic income fame and former Presidential candidate) noted a couple of executives coming to him with worries of potential revolution if unemployment increases while AI is used for replacement. So, some executives are well aware of the potential dangers and are worried.

It’s the shareholders that probably don’t care. They are anonymous.

Notes

Probably next week I’ll post a list of things that happened during April that might be construed as crisis moments to see if those astrological predictions hold. As a reminder, April was supposed to be a real doozy.

No, instead I will just note the general atmosphere of growing concerns and anger. Those polls are terrible. Few people (maybe roughly 30-35%) seems to be in favor of the war with Iran or are being adversely impacted by inflation or have faced the consequences from immigration efforts. I may be reading too much in the air but it does feel like people.are.starting.to.get.fed.up.

We’re heading into summer where political campaigns start to heat up and this year could be particularly nasty. Victor Orban in Hungary lost his reelection and it is said that the same thing could happen here, so people are preparing for some moves and countermovements.

Along with the political campaign season, the hurricane season will rev up. Hopefully, the season will be a replay of last year where zero hurricanes hit land. Kind of an unrealistic hope but that is all I can do since I recently read that FEMA has not been disbursing disaster money. So, politics and weather this summer.

And oh, before I forget, the recent assassination attempt is another sign of rising anger. These young men think taking a gun and shooting out their “target” is going to fix whatever ails them, but they are sadly mistaken.