A former Google employee who spent over a decade at the tech giant has criticised Oracle’s recent round of layoffs, saying the company showed “no empathy and no accountability” toward workers while senior leaders continue to amass wealth. On April 1, Oracle laid off 30,000 employees across the US, India, and other regions, with 6 am emails informing them of immediate job cuts. It impacted around 12,000 employees in India
Meredith Hemenway‑Betzhold, who worked at Google for 11 years, shared the post on LinkedIn after Oracle laid off employees through mass emails—an approach she compared to Google’s widely criticised “Golden Google” layoffs in 2023.
‘The ultimate cowardly capitulation’
“My heart goes out to anyone who has been impacted by a layoff,” Hemenway‑Betzhold, a resident of South Carolina, US, wrote. “But it’s extra squishy and sensitive for those who, like me in 2023, woke up to an email breaking the news that you are impacted. I have been there as a part of the Golden Google Layoffs in 2023.”
She said that being informed about layoffs via email remains “the ultimate cowardly capitulation to shareholders that stand to profit from the misfortune of thousands”.
Recalling her own experience, she said her layoff email had landed in her spam folder, forcing her husband to sort through her inbox to confirm whether she was affected. “In 2023, my husband spent 20 minutes sorting through my Gmail looking for my email. It went to Spam. If only Google could have prevented that. Instead, I spent those agonising moments wondering if it applied to me or if my laptop was just in need of an update,” she said, adding that Oracle did the same to its employees earlier this month.
“No empathy and no accountability from any of the leaders who stand to make billions more,” the former Google employee said.
‘No empathy from leadership’
Hemenway‑Betzhold argued that tech layoffs are often driven by short‑term stock market gains rather than financial necessity, and that workers—whose efforts helped generate those profits—are the ones who bear the cost.
She Oracle’s approach mirrored the lack of humanity she experienced in 2023.
Hemenway‑Betzhold also criticised what she described as a culture of silence in Big Tech. “It’s scary to speak up—especially in a company like Google where speaking up was once a core value. It no longer is.”
How other industries handle layoffs
Drawing comparisons with the automotive sector, Hemenway‑Betzhold said tech companies could learn from how traditional manufacturers handle reductions in force (RIFs), often starting with buyouts and early‑retirement schemes.
“The issue is it takes time and doesn’t provide a quick surge in stock prices,” she wrote. “But it’s ethical and humane.”
Support and anger from former colleagues
The post drew strong reactions on LinkedIn. Albert Guenther, a former maintenance planner at Google, said the 2023 layoffs derailed his retirement planning, but that he continues to rebuild. “A bit bitter maybe, but we pulled through,” he wrote.
Another user criticised Oracle’s execution of the layoffs. “One email—that’s it?” the user said, adding that it felt as though “humans in boardrooms are being replaced by robots with no empathy.”
A wider pattern
The backlash comes amid reports that Oracle’s recent layoffs have also affected long‑serving senior executives, including employees with 30‑plus years at the company, fuelling debate over whether algorithm‑driven workforce cuts are becoming standard across Big Tech.