Worked through festivals, vacations & hospital stays: Wife shares heartbreaking post on sudden layoff of Oracle veteran

For the IT veteran with nearly two decades in the industry and an internal ‘Best Employee Award’ to his credit, having access revoked without warning served as a jarring reminder of corporate impersonality.

After 12 years of sweat, skipped festivals, and quiet sacrifices, this veteran Oracle employee discovered he no longer had a job when his system refused to let him log in.

In a heartbreaking tribute, Pooja Sahu, a US-based techie, shared that her husband, Sourabh, was let go from Oracle after 12 years of giving his best to his job, even when life asked him to pause.

“My husband, Sourabh, lost his job today. After working for Oracle for 12 years, all he got was being unable to log in to his system to get the news,” she wrote in a viral LinkedIn post.

Unseen sacrifices

Layoff statistics often obscure the years of personal compromises made by rank-and-file workers. Pooja's post highlighted the toll exacted on families who quietly absorb the demands of round-the-clock enterprise tech roles.

“I have never seen a person so hardworking and dedicated to his work,” she wrote, recalling her husband’s unrelenting dedication to work over the past decade.

She recounted how work routinely took precedence over critical personal moments:

• Worked from hospital: He continued working from the hospital while Pooja was admitted for surgery to remove polyps.
• Worked on vacations: During their vacation in New Mexico, he was on call while Pooja drove.
• Skipped festivals: He worked during Holi, Diwali, Rakhi, and other festivals, as well as on birthdays, anniversaries, and weekends.
• Work over health: A few weeks ago, the couple adopted a dog. Pooja said he took care of her while working through the night until 3 am, to the point of falling ill from exhaustion.

Despite the relentless workload, Pooja noted that her husband never let the strain show.

“You could never see how much blood and sweat he poured into his job or the immense pressure he was under, because he always wore a smile and was there to help everyone around him,” she wrote. “Not just me, but no one in our friends' circle ever saw him cribbing.”

Reality of the ‘locked screen’ exit

The abrupt nature of Sourabh's exit has struck a raw nerve among tech professionals worldwide. For decades, parting ways with long-tenured talent involved formal exit interviews, town halls, or direct communication with senior managers.

However, with the rise of remote and hybrid corporate infrastructure, account deactivation has become the primary automated notification of unemployment.

For Sourabh, an IT veteran with nearly two decades in the industry and an internal ‘Best Employee Award’ to his credit, having access revoked without warning served as a jarring reminder of corporate impersonality.

Nod to visa realities

Beyond documenting her husband’s individual journey, Pooja dedicated the message to a broader, often silent demographic: foreign workers navigating volatile job cuts under the shadow of legal immigration constraints.

“This post is for everyone who works day and night to provide for their families, especially amid visa uncertainty, yet still gives their best every day,” she wrote, acknowledging the compounding stress faced by families whose residence status is tethered directly to active employment.

She closed her note with an appeal to the global tech network for opportunities. She urged hiring managers to consider him for open roles: “If you know of any opportunities, please refer him. You won't just gain a great team player but a friend for life.”

For her husband, Pooja had a simple reassurance: “Sourabh, better things are coming for you.”

About the Author

Arshdeep Kaur is a Senior Content Producer at Mint, where she reports and edits across national and international politics, business and culture‑adjacent trending stories for digital audience. With five years in the newsroom, she strives to balance the speed and rigor of fast‑moving news cycles and longer, context‑rich explainers. <br><br> Before joining LiveMint, Arshdeep served as a Senior Sub‑Editor at Business Standard and earlier as a Sub‑Editor at Asian News International (ANI). Her experience spans live news flows, enterprise features, and multi‑platform packaging. <br><br> At Mint, she regularly writes explainers, quick takes, and visuals‑led stories that are optimized for search and social, while maintaining the publication’s standards for accuracy and clarity. She collaborates closely with editors and the audience team to frame angles that resonate with readers in India and abroad, and to translate complex developments into accessible, high‑impact journalism. <br><br> Arshdeep's academic training underpins her interest towards policy and markets. She earned an MA in Economics from Panjab University and holds a Post‑Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from the India Today Media Institute (ITMI). This blend of economics and broadcast storytelling informs her coverage of public policy, elections, macro themes, and the consumer‑internet zeitgeist. <br><br> Arshdeep is based in New Delhi, where she tracks breaking developments and longer‑horizon storylines that shape public discourse.

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