I’ve been talking myself out of pointing a camera at myself since April. The urge showed up almost immediately after the layoff, and every time I was on the edge of jumping into action, I talked myself out of it.
Then Oracle laid off another huge swath of people on Monday, and the group chat we started back in April doubled in a day.
That was the jolt I needed to get into action. An idea I’d previously had was to talk about the layoff experience and some of its pitfalls, and I realized that the people who got hit this week are the ones who need to hear it most.
On LinkedIn, I posted a vertical format cut of this video. Since I’m a curmudgeon that believes that “real” video still needs to be horizontal, I also posted the original cut on YouTube. I’ll play your games, algorithm. But widescreen video is better. Pbbbt.
I wanted to make sure these new people knew that there was a community ready to welcome them and give moral support. Terry Hale set up a Slack workspace for ex-Oracle people, and it’s a great resource I suggest to anyone who finds themselves laid off by Oracle.
If you notice at the end, I mention this being a Cocktail Napkin video. At the start of the video, I actually billed this as the season 4 premiere, but cut it. Maybe this is the rebirth of the vlog. Maybe not. I’m still not sure, but I do know I’ve got some ideas, so a short run isn’t out of the question.
Also, I’ve got nothing better to do.
For everybody who got hit on Monday.