Google HR chief Eileen Naughton to step down amid employee tensions


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. 

Naughton, a 14-year veteran of the company, will remain at Google in another role, though the search giant said it doesn't know what her new role will be. (Officially, Naughton's title is vice president of People Operations, Google parlance for HR.) Fortune earlier reported the news

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.

Google workers have also displayed unrest over the firings of four Google employees who were dismissed in November. The former employees accused Google of sacking them for "engaging in protected labor organizing" and filed charges of unfair labor practices against the company. Google said the employees were fired for violating data security policies, not organizing.

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."