Internal leaks on Oracle speak of a "culture of fear"

Until a while ago, big tech had a very good press. They talked about the millions they made, the great work environment with an open juice bar and gaming tables, and how their products were going to make the planet a better place.

Things began to change (which was when big technology began to compete with traditional media for advertising revenue and readers / viewers is purely coincidental). More and more cases of shareholders or defrauded customers, privacy violations, workplace harassment and a long etcetera.

For example, the Business Insi portalder comes publishing a series of articles with inside information about Oracle. They talk about what some employees called a "culture of fear" within the company. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the cloud services division.

Copying the Amazon model

Larry Ellison, Oracle's CEO, did not believe in the cloud. But, like his clients, he had to adapt.  At first he tried this by buying a third-party product that was not suitable for the needs of large Oracle customers. It was thus that the second attempt consisted in recruiting engineers from the market leader, Amazon.

The chosen ones were, among others, Don Johnson (who would be the first leader of the project) and Clay Magouyrk who would join Oracle as an individual contributor and end up replacing Johnson as the leader of the new division.

You can not deny that Clay magouyrk was successful. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure now has 10.000 employees and, according to internal sources, brings in revenue of $ 1.000 billion a year. LOfficial information released in March indicates that Oracle posted $ 10.100 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter. Of its Cloud division, it maintained that it grew 100% compared to the same period of 2020.

According to the sources and documents that Business Insider had access to, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is copying the corporate values ​​of Amazon Web Services and it even organizes workshops with executives outside the company to spread them.

Examples include the transformation of Amazon's "customer obsession" principle into "putting customers first." The practice of having a third party have the last word in hiring a new employee was also copied. That third party is the one who determines if the applicant is up to the task.

But, it seems that there are clouds on the horizon (They should already know me and know that I was not going to stop making the joke).

What do Oracle's internal leaks say about the "culture of fear"

It happens that the friend Magouyrk was mentioned in a couple of lawsuits filed by former vice presidents against the company. In one of them he is told that he once told an executive that his actions were "fucking stupid" in front of all the top leaders of the OCI. One of the complainants committed suicide in April.

Always according to Business Insider sources, lThe demands fall short of what really happens. Apparently when angry, Magouyrk insults people personally and professionally in front of his colleagues and even makes grown men cry.

One thing must be said in favor. There may be a "culture of fear" as one of the employees put it. But, at least they warn. TO One applicant was warned that he was going to want a "fear buddy" to turn to when he inevitably thought he was going to be fired.

Other recurring practices include moving the disgraced to minor projects or setting unrealistic dates.

Remember the "Put customers first" thing?

The OCI established a program called FairShare which the company describes as un "limit to protect customers from excessive workloads". On the contrary, the gossips that speak to BI argue that Oracle had actually given some customers deep discounts in exchange for positive marketing testimonials or other services, which they now regret.
When those customers try to get new equipment up and running in the Oracle cloud, they sometimes get a "capacity error" message. This allows another customer paying full price to use those resources,

Disclaimer

Of course, verifying the veracity of all these sayings is beyond my capacity anymore. Linux Adictos. It is already known that leaks of this type can be part of the competition between companies. Without a doubt, I will be in charge of publishing the pertinent denials if it is proven false.