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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 11 2020, @11:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the HR-aka-"people-operations" dept.

Google's HR head to step down amid tension among employees:

[Eileen] Naughton, who has held various roles at the company since 2006, has led the company's human resources department as the vice president of people operations since 2016. The news was previously reported by Fortune.

Employee headcount has doubled since 2016, when Naughton took the helm, as it's added more than 70,000 employees. The company has faced considerable tension with employees over the last several years, including a November 2018 employee walk-out after employees learned the company had paid departing Android chief $90 million in 2014, despite credible claims of sexual misconduct, as well as protests over the company's plans to work with the Defense Department on artificial intelligence technology and a plan -- since abandoned -- to create a censored version of its search engine for China. In November 2019, the company fired four employees who allegedly shared internal information.

[...] Naughton's departure comes in the midst of a slow-rolling executive shakeup over the last several months. In December, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped down from their roles as the CEO and President of Google's holding company, Alphabet. Sundar Pichai, who had already been Google's CEO for several years, took the helm. The company's long-time chief legal officer David Drummond retired at the end of January.

[...] A Google spokesperson confirmed Naughton will be taking another role within the company, but declined to provide any details on what that would be. She'll work with Pichai and Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat to find another leader to fill her role.

"Over the past 13 years, Eileen has made major contributions to the company in numerous areas, from media partnerships, to leading our sales and operations in the UK and Ireland, to leading our People Operations team through a period of significant growth -- during which over 70,000 people started their careers at Google," Pichai said in a statement the company sent to CNBC. "We're grateful to Eileen for all she's done and look forward to her next chapter at Google."

Google HR chief Eileen Naughton to step down amid employee tensions:

Eileen Naughton is stepping down as Google human resources chief.

Google's head of human resources, Eileen Naughton, said on Monday she will depart that role, as tensions continue to rise between company management and workers who have protested the search giant's workplace culture.

[...] The shift comes as Google faces the greatest challenges to its culture in its 21-year history. During her tenure as head of HR, activists within the search giant have protested several decisions by leadership, including the signing of an artificial intelligence contract with the Pentagon and Google's work in China. Most notably, 20,000 employees walked out of their offices in November 2018 to protest leadership's handling of sexual assault allegations.

[...] Naughton, though, said her decision to step down isn't related to any of those cultural clashes. 

"My husband and I have decided -- after six years on the road, first in London and now San Francisco -- to return home to New York to be closer to our family," Naughton said in a statement. "I'm at the very beginning of the process and wanted to let everyone know upfront, as I'll be working with [Google CEO] Sundar [Pichai] and [Google CFO] Ruth [Porat] to find a great leader for the People Operations team."


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  • (Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday February 12 2020, @02:17AM (4 children)

    by arslan (3462) on Wednesday February 12 2020, @02:17AM (#957048)

    Nobody said about instant change - but the leaders in each are should be making complementary adjustments to their overall functional area's strategy. I'm not at Google and wasn't commenting whether this particular instance the HR head was at fault, was more a generalized comment. I've seen enough HR chief that completely misses the point in aligning their workforce strategy to that of the overall corporate one though.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday February 12 2020, @02:38AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 12 2020, @02:38AM (#957056) Journal

    I'm not at Google and wasn't commenting whether this particular instance the HR head was at fault, was more a generalized comment.

    You weren't too explicit on this one, I couldn't rule out the intention to suggest that's exactly what happened in the TFA context.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 12 2020, @09:28AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 12 2020, @09:28AM (#957141) Journal

    and should have understood the moment they pivot to "start being evil" _internally_ /quote? "Should have understood the moment they pivot" sounds like instant change to me.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 12 2020, @09:29AM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 12 2020, @09:29AM (#957142) Journal
    Try this again:

    and should have understood the moment they pivot to "start being evil" _internally_

    "Should have understood the moment they pivot" sounds like instant change to me.

    • (Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday February 12 2020, @11:04PM

      by arslan (3462) on Wednesday February 12 2020, @11:04PM (#957454)

      Umm I think you need to re-read the chain of comments, the "instant change" that I was responding to was this claim by someone else:

      And the employees are things that can be reprogrammed on the spot

      and you decide to latch on that to refute me by quoting this from me:

      Should have understood the moment they pivot

      where the "they" here refers to the management not the employees. Sure management can change their minds but nowhere did I say employees can be reprogrammed on the spot, I said the leaders need to re-adjust their strategy, i.e. if you're a HR chief you need to adjust your workforce strategy - if you don't and the opposing trajectory continues and it blows up later, you deserve to be fired.