The concept of people management is viewed with “healthy scepticism” at Google, according to the firm’s head of organisational culture, benefit and people policies in EMEA.

Rachel Mooney told PM at ?What If!’s Top Dog live event: “Early on at Google, there was a cynicism around ‘people managers’ as a concept and as a profession in itself. Within our organisation there isn’t really the ‘career’ people manager. If you’re a manager at Google you’re expected to get your hands dirty. You’re never separate from the day-to-day work.”