When faced with the reality of doing layoffs most managers try to be as
fair as possible, preparing an objective comparison of cost vs.
performance for each employee. However, you must also consider
intangible aspects such as the loss of institutional knowledge which is
especially critical for Oracle DBA's who understand the complex nuances
of your systems. When evaluating Oracle professionals for a layoff,
many employers consider these factors:
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Has the person distinguished themselves by graduating from a
competitive university?
-
Are they committed to keeping up with the technology changes?
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Have they been chosen to publish in Oracle journals and present at
Oracle conferences?
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Are they well-liked by their peers and end-user community?
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Are they a good value for their salary level?
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Are they productive, when compared to their peers?
The biggest discrepancy is found with successful, older Oracle
professionals. For example, it's not uncommon to find senior Oracle
professionals who have earned top raises in past years and now earn
twice the salary of a professional who has just graduated from college.
Because older Oracle professionals may not be as productive as they once
were and they may not have the stamina of the younger folks to work long
evening and weekend hours, they present a tempting target for layoffs.
While age discrimination laws prevent wholesale layoff of your more
expensive and less productive older workers, there are some things that
can be done to justify layoffs on a case-by-case basis. Job termination
laws vary widely between jurisdictions. They cover the gamut from
employment-at-will states where you don't need to state a reason for
firing someone to states with strict wrongful termination laws.
Remember, in some jurisdictions, a large layoff of Oracle professionals
can be very costly because of required severance and unemployment pay
for each employee.
In order to avoid complaints about unjust termination some companies may
justify their layoffs by claiming abuse of company resources. While
this practice is considered unsavory, companies have been able to
successfully fire Oracle professionals ?for cause? by documenting
unauthorized use of company property for such innocent acts such as
surfing the web while at work. The rules vary by jurisdiction, but
avoiding litigation after a layoff is a legitimate concern for the IT
manager.
For complete details on firing Oracle professionals, see the book ?Firing
Computer Professionals: The IT Manager Guide for Terminating "With
Cause".
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