[jimmywanger]

> There was certainly a group of engineers who didn't respect her, but there was also a very large contingent who did

I don't know of a single engineer who respected her who worked directly with her. The ones who didn't work directly with her were sort of indifferent, and I tended to discount those data points.

Of course, YMMV, plural of anecdote is not data, but the informed engineering sentiment was neutral to negative.

> Your last paragraph is pretty much pure speculation.

It depends on your definition of "safe". She was in no danger of getting fired, as I pointed out. She also was in no position to be taking on more responsibilities or product areas - the fact that she had much of geo taken away from her is a indication of lost faith.

Internally, geo was not considered an especially well run organization for multiple reasons. The chances of recovering from that in an organization is low to none, in my experience.