Google may rank as the top place to work in the United States, but Wall Street is taking a closer look at the hiring party after the Web’s 800-pound search gorilla reported the hefty expense tab. Jeffrey Lindsay at Sanford C. Bernstein even compared the outflow to the acts of ”drunken sailors.”
     
We’re sure that won’t halt the silver scooters parked inside Google’s primary-colored hallways or stem the never-ending snack stream at its employee mini-kitchens. But it might curb the expansion, for a little while, as all those new staff members get trained for a long work week.    

Here’s Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt’s answers to repeated questions by analysts over the company’s headcount, according to a transcript of the company’s conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings:
    
    Schmidt’s opening remarks:
    “From a Google perspective, when we look at the quarter, one area we exceeded over our expense plan was headcount. We are very pleased with the talent that we’ve brought on board, but going forward we will watch this area very closely.”

    Schmidt after first analyst inquires into hiring:
    “What I would tell you is that we overspent against our own plan in the area of headcount, and that was — some of it was related to this bonus accrual that I talked about, and some because we hired a little faster than we had planned. 
    “In looking at it, we thought, was this a mistake or not?  And we decided it was not a mistake, that in fact the kind of people we brought in are so good that we’re happy we did this. And as I said earlier, we will continue to watch this very carefully in the future.”    

    Schmidt after second analyst asks about hiring:
    “With respect to the headcount, as I said, we ended up somewhat higher on our headcount expenses than we planned, which is the issue that Anthony asked about as well. We will watch it. We will adjust. We will be opportunistic. But we are going to be careful about that.”
    
    Schmidt after third analyst questions hiring:
    “With respect to productivity of our headcount, our headcount, especially in sales, is productive very, very quickly … it’s maybe even within the same quarter in which they are hired.”