Tech giant Google on Monday confirmed that its Head of People Operations or Head of HR Eileen Naughton is stepping down from her position. This comes after Eileen spent years mediating issues between the management and the employees due to the rise in employee activism.
She will be stepping down from her position as the VP of People Operations.
In a statement, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said, “We’re grateful to Eileen for all she’s done and look forward to her next chapter at Google.”
Naughton took the charge of HR in the tech company in 2016 and since then Google has added more than 70,000 employees during her tenure.
Talking about her decision, Naughton said, “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.” She also asserted that she would help Pichai and CFO Ruth Porat in finding her successor.
Since Naughton became the HR head Google has been witnessing a rise in employee activism. A lot has changed how Google manages its employee relations at Google.
Employees at Google on many occasions have engaged with the management on plenty of issues like its environmental policies, labor practices and the development of controversial products.
Last year, Google had fired four of its employees on charges of leaking information or accessing proprietary data without authorization. But many believed that it was because of their attempt to unionize the staff.
This resulted in a number of protests outside the company’s San Francisco office. Many employees were also angry because Google had ruled out its “TGIF” all-hands meeting, a forum in which employees could share their grievances to management in front of the whole company.
Google had also faced opposition from the employees on their methods of handling the sexual misconduct allegations on top management executives.
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