Pamela Price said she opened an email at 7:10 in the morning at the end of March and learned her Oracle job had been eliminated. The 65-year-old former employee, who lives in Michigan, said the message landed like a surprise and left her stunned.
"It was a shock," Price said, adding that "finding out over email felt cold." She said she had spent nearly 10 years at Oracle as a senior principal technical account manager, overseeing accounts across state government, schools, colleges and universities.
Price said she remained on Oracle's payroll until April 10 even though she was no longer working there. The timing mattered because she said the layoff came after she had already heard rumors in March on social media and private employee platforms that cuts were coming.
Business Insider said it verified Price's former employment with documentation. Price said the layoffs affected thousands of people, a scale that turned her story into more than a personal setback and tied it to a wider corporate sweep that has pushed many workers to scramble for what comes next.
Before the layoff, Price had already built a second path. Years earlier she started Priceless Dreams, a nonprofit focused on financial literacy and education, and she said she has been helping students succeed on the side for about 20 years through consulting and notary services tied to the organization.
That work gave her a fallback when the Oracle email arrived. Price said she has leaned harder into Priceless Dreams since the layoff, while also fielding LinkedIn messages from people offering job leads and recommendation letters.
She said Oracle also gave her training that still matters, including many free courses and certifications. For now, that mix of experience, contacts and side work is what she is carrying forward after a layoff that she said arrived without warning and without much warmth.
