Google steps up hiring in 2008, but not in an organized way

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been growing its employee count by leaps and bounds over the last few years, but has recently slowed that growth which, of course, sounded an investor alert. But, the world's largest internet search engine just can't keep track of the activities of all its new employees, according to CEO Eric Schmidt.

Google does not want new employees to get lost in the cracks, according to Schmidt. If this is true, then Google is growing too fast for its britches. "We have slowed our head count growth for a couple of reasons, but the biggest reason is it began to feel like we really didn't have a good sense of what people were doing ... the systems in the company, literally who's doing what, what are they doing, seemed to lag our ability to hire these great people," Schmidt told CNBC.

In the first quarter of 2008, Google upped its head count from 16,805 to 19,156. That's quite a bit in a single quarter. Even with all those new people, Google affords more luxuries on its employees than most other public companies in the world. Even with a recession in progress (if you agree with that), Google's business, so far, has been stellar. Schmidt indicated that "we have gross margins to afford it," in talking about the lavish treatment of Google employees and the benefits they receive. Will shareholders continue to like the way that money is being spent? So far, there have not been any complaints.