Oracle begins new round of layoffs: Logins stopped by 4 a.m., Slack disconnected by 5:30 a.m., then came the dreaded ‘6 a.m. email’; more job cuts likely in India

Oracle has begun a fresh round of layoffs, with employees in the U.S. reportedly losing access to company systems hours before receiving an email informing them that their positions had been eliminated. The latest cuts, which began on September 14, reportedly affected multiple departments, with some teams facing workforce reductions of more than 10%. Employees who were let go were told that their roles had been eliminated as part of a broader organisational change and that September 14 would be their final working day.

Oracle has not disclosed the number of employees affected. Reports suggesting that between 7,000 and 10,000 jobs could be eliminated have not been confirmed by the company.

Employees lost access before the 6 a.m. email

For some Oracle employees, September 14 unfolded through a strange sequence of system failures before the official notification arrived. Employees said federated logins stopped working around 4 a.m. Eastern time. Between approximately 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., some reported being disconnected from Slack. Office badge access also reportedly stopped functioning.


Then came the email.

At around 6 a.m. local time, affected employees received a message from "Oracle Leadership" informing them that their roles had been eliminated as part of a broader organisational change.

The message said their current day would be their last working day and that they could receive a severance package after completing the required termination paperwork. Employees were also instructed to provide a personal email address because access to Oracle computers, email, voicemail and other systems would soon be deactivated.

Which Oracle departments were affected?

Employee reports suggest the layoffs reached several parts of Oracle. Posts on Reddit identified affected workers in OCI security, CI/CD, enterprise engineering, observability, executive escalations, Fusion, NetSuite sales, Customer Success Services, Oracle Health, EPM, HR Technology, data-centre compliance and the Stargate site in Abilene, Texas.

A discussion on the r/employeesOfOracle subreddit reportedly received more than 300 comments within hours. Employees also claimed that Slack membership had dropped by an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 accounts during the morning, although this figure has not been independently confirmed.

Some employees said strong performance reviews did not protect them from the cuts.

One HR Technology employee reportedly said they had received four consecutive ratings of four and one rating of five before being laid off. Another employee with four years at OCI said they had never received a rating below "meets expectations."

A QA engineer with 24 years of service was also reportedly affected.

Workers at Oracle's Abilene, Texas, site were among those reporting layoffs, including at least one employee who had joined the company only months earlier.

Oracle layoffs had been anticipated

The timing of the layoffs may have surprised employees, but another round of cuts had reportedly been expected for weeks.

Since August, employees had been discussing possible layoff dates on Reddit, with September 1, September 15 and September 30 among the dates mentioned. Oracle had not officially confirmed any of those dates.

Reports from mid-August suggested that managers had been asked to submit lists of positions that could be eliminated, with payroll adjustments expected around the start of Oracle's second fiscal quarter.

For some employees, the uncertainty continued even after they lost access to company systems.

Workers reportedly lost access to email, VPNs and other internal services before receiving complete severance documentation. Because their corporate accounts were being disabled, some were left waiting for separation information to be sent to personal email addresses.

One employee in Oracle's database organisation, who had worked at the company for four years, reportedly said they were offered seven weeks of severance.

India could be next

The September 14 layoffs appeared to begin in the U.S., but employees are now anticipating further cuts in other regions.

India could be among the next markets affected. Employee estimates circulating online suggest that between 3,000 and 4,000 positions could be eliminated across the India Development Centre, with customer support also facing potentially significant reductions.

Those figures remain estimates and have not been confirmed by Oracle.

EMEA is also expected to be affected later, according to employee discussions. Some workers have reportedly said that cases connected to the March layoffs in Europe remain unresolved.

During the earlier round of cuts in India, severance reportedly followed an N+2 formula in many cases, while unvested restricted stock was forfeited when employees left the company.

Oracle has not publicly commented on the September 14 layoffs.

The latest cuts follow a major reduction in Oracle's workforce during the previous fiscal year. According to company filings, Oracle's headcount fell by about 21,000 employees, or 13%, in the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026. The company had roughly 141,000 employees before the latest layoffs.

The job cuts also come as Oracle dramatically expands its spending on artificial intelligence and data-centre infrastructure. The company is taking on tens of billions of dollars in debt to fund its expansion as demand for AI computing capacity continues to grow.

Oracle's capital expenditure reached $28.5 billion in the first quarter, compared with $8.5 billion during the same period a year earlier. It has retained its fiscal 2027 capital expenditure forecast of between $90 billion and $95 billion, highlighting the scale of its planned investment in AI and data centres.