{"id":15904,"date":"2009-06-30T00:01:11","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T00:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnackdev\/2009\/06\/adobe-is-closed-this-week-and-what-that-means.html"},"modified":"2009-06-30T00:01:11","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T00:01:11","slug":"adobe_is_closed_this_week_and_what_that_me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/30\/adobe_is_closed_this_week_and_what_that_me\/","title":{"rendered":"Adobe is closed this week (and what that means)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just saw Daring Fireball point<\/a> to an SJ Merc story<\/a> relaying the rather banal news that most Adobe offices are closed this week. So they are*. I’m no expert on company expense management, nor am I a corporate spokesperson (see blurb at right), but I feel like sharing a little perspective.<\/p>\n

Let me first mention that these Adobe shutdowns are nothing new. I’ve worked here for 9 years, and the company has done the shutdowns off and on throughout that time–at least since ’01 or ’02. I didn’t hear the news of this one and say (as DF does) “Uh-oh.”<\/p>\n

Mr. Gruber reasonably asks, “At a software company, shouldn\u2019t every week be a productive week?” Sure, but I’ll bet you know what it’s like to work near holidays: it’s harder to make progress when lots of your colleagues are out of the office. If that’s going to be the case, why not just schedule a break & save a bunch of money on facilities, security, and so forth?**<\/p>\n

I’d rather have everyone be gone at once (and thus more likely back at once) than to run at reduced strength for weeks on end.<\/p>\n

Gruber also writes,<\/p>\n

And I can only guess that on some, if not most, teams, there is subtle (or even not so subtle) pressure to keep working from home on whatever your current project is.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nope. As I understand it, a few teams with time-sensitive projects may get permission to work through the break, but everyone else is taking the time off. Because the breaks aren’t a surprise, most teams built them into their schedules a long time ago (just as they do with holidays). Adobe offers very generous<\/a> PTO<\/a> benefits, to the point that people don’t use up enough time off. A week-long shutdown is a way of saying, “No, seriously, guys–we want<\/em> you to take some vacation. Get the hell out of here, enjoy yourself, and come back refreshed.”<\/p>\n

Anyway, my inbox for Monday shows 70 mails, vs. 300+ for a typical day. Clearly somebody<\/em> is taking vacation seriously. Collectively we’re taking it all in stride.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

* So why am I continuing to blog? For one thing, I’m drumming my fingers with nervous energy, waiting for a baby<\/a> to arrive, and I need the distraction.<\/em><\/p>\n

** For a company of ~7,400 employees, saving a week’s worth of summertime energy & other infrastructure expenses translates to real money. Meanwhile Adobe HQ<\/a> (already the first existing LEED Platinum-rated green building<\/a>) is upgrading this week to even more energy-efficient HVAC. The 20-story yellow crane I saw yesterday can’t do its thing while people are inside\/below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just saw Daring Fireball point to an SJ Merc story relaying the rather banal news that most Adobe offices are closed this week. So they are*. I’m no expert on company expense management, nor am I a corporate spokesperson (see blurb at right), but I feel like sharing a little perspective. Let me first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}