Adobe shuts up shop for a week

July 1, 2009 | 10:54

Tags: #credit-crunch #holiday

Companies: #adobe

Adobe is taking some fairly drastic measures to ensure its financial health – most impressively the decision to completely close its US offices for a full week.

As reported over on V3.co.uk, Adobe has acted after revealing that its year-on-year financials showed a 41 percent drop in profits with the termination of around six hundred jobs, the reduction of staff expense accounts, and the removal of traditional bonuses.

However, the company has followed these measures up with the decision to enforce an office closure that will see its US operations suspended for a week. In a post to his blog, senior product manager for Photoshop at Adobe John Nack explained that the shutdown is nothing new – with Adobe having carried out similar exercises “off and on” throughout his nine years at the company.

As Nack sees it, the move makes sense: as plenty of people are taking summer holidays around this time anyway, those left behind find that it's “harder to make progress when lots of colleagues are out of the office.” Describing the shutdown as Adobe's way of saying “No, seriously, guys – we want you to take some vacation. Get the hell out of here, enjoy yourself, and come back refreshed,” Nack sees it as a smart way to save on energy costs, facilities, and security – and a good opportunity for a planned upgrade to the HVAC system in the headquarters to take place.

Employees are, apparently, encouraged to take paid holiday leave during this week's shutdown – although Adobe hasn't revealed what happens to those unable or unwilling to use holiday time in order to stay away from work. Nack has also explained that “a few teams with time-sensitive projects may get permission to work through the break” - meaning that if you're an Adobe partner waiting on a vital project, you needn't worry about the missing week.

Do you think that a week of enforced holiday is a sensible move to help cut costs, or is Adobe dictating when staff can and can't take their time off? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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