Google CEO extends sympathy to staff in light of #GoogleWalkout
Sundar Pichai offered concern for workers but sought to reassert control after thousands of employees protested the company’s harassment history and response.
The Google brass wants to remind everyone who is in charge.
The company has been the subject of employee unrest, including pushback that nixed an AI technology deal with the Pentagon and, this week, a worldwide protest over Google’s response to sexual harassment within its ranks.
The outcry has shown the power that employees of the tech giant can wield—but executives are looking to take back control.
In a press conference after the #GoogleWalkout, CEO Sundar Pichai reasserted his authority.
“We don’t run the company by referendum,” Pichai said at a conference in New York on Thursday. “There are many good things about giving employees a lot of voice, out of that we have done well.”
The internal dynamics may appear chaotic to outsiders, but they’re not as intense as some have characterized them to be, he added.
Pichai did express sympathy for the protesters’ point of view.
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