Tech layoffs 2026: 'Don't give even...,' says techie who survived 30,000 job cuts at Oracle

This week, Oracle notified thousands of employees that their jobs no longer exist in 6 am emails. Workers got the shock of their lives when their Slack accounts were deactivated without warning. And those who still have their jobs at Oracle intact wondered: What happens now? Will I be forced to clock in longer working hours?

According to a viral Reddit post, the management would call a meeting, talk about "ramping up efficiency," and expect the remaining team to absorb the workload of those who just got laid off. What to do in such a case? The message is blunt and clear: do not work harder to cover for the people who were let go.

"Do not, I repeat do not give even an hour extra of what you would usually give to work. Drae healthy work-life boundaries, go completely offline post office hours, and do not overburden yourself with others' work," the Redditor wrote.

The user suggested that if employees quietly absorb the extra workload and keep hitting targets, they are sending a dangerous signal up the management chain — that the layoffs were justified, and that more cuts could follow.

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"If you will stretch yourselves to meet the committed targets... it will signal to your management chain that this was in fact all for good, and probably there is scope to squeeze out a few more cost cutting measures in the future."

The alternative? Let projects slip. Let deadlines get missed. Let the consequences of understaffing become visible — and uncomfortable — for the people who made the call.

"Customer SLAs breached? Cost of doing layoffs. Basically, the middle management should feel the burn. Let the projects fail or delay, and let them get a few new hires eventually to ease out your burden."

The writer is careful to clarify one thing: this is not a call to sabotage and to not do less than what your job requires. "High performers, experienced architects - no one was spared, at the end of the day you're just a number in the sheet. If the management decides to let you go, it won't matter how much your team or your manager is dependent on you or your impact, you will be let go," the Redditor signed off. 

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Soon after the post went viral, fellow Redditors were quick to share their reactions. 

"And spend some time getting all of your personal stuff off of your work computer now," a user wrote. 

A second user commented, "Always be interviewing (I know it's a shit market), but always be interviewing. Instead of working hard for these hacks, invest in yourself and get interview-ready, crack a better deal, and move the fuck on from this shit show."

"They will keep cutting until the consequences make them stop. Do not prevent the consequences," a third user said. 

A fourth user wrote, "This is good advice. From someone who was a high-performer and worked very hard for Oracle and still got the 6 am message yesterday, heed this. Don’t reward their shitty decision. They should feel the pain of this for a long time."