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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: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Wednesday February 12 2020, @02:44AM (1 child)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday February 12 2020, @02:44AM (#957059)

    She has enough vested options to never work another day in her life. She can either A) [buy a sheep ranch in Idaho : buy a house in the Bay area], or B) "Hmmm, don't be evil. Our worker bees are unhappy over shit I don't care about. Wat du?"

    Keep in mind HR is not there for the employees. HR's #1 job is to keep the company's nose clean, and keep them out of lawsuits. If you're piddling desires happen to match up with that then, yeah, HR is on your side.

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @05:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @05:28PM (#957770)

    Keep in mind HR is not there for the employees. HR's #1 job is to keep the company's nose clean, and keep them out of lawsuits.

    tldr; Keep in HR stands for Human Resources. Go figure.