Micromanagement, Poor quality of work - Computer Scientist Adobe Employee Review

1.0
29 Mar 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lunch and Dinner Rising stock price

Cons

I happened to be under a manager whose way of managing was by instilling a sense of fear. He'd micromanage people, shout in front of the team, had no idea of the future roadmap of the product. Code quality doesn't matter here, as that is not what is your manager is judged on the basis of by directors and above. It should just be working. That's it. Most of the modules I wrote never went into production. I was criticized for following good coding practices, as that just wastes time and delays delivery of the feature. Unequal workload. Sometimes you'd just sit for months without getting any work. Other times you'd be forced to work on weekends. If you want to learn and grow as an engineer, please stay away.

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5.0
22 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Company does its best to take care of employees and avoid layoffs. Great office amenities and flexible work-life balance

Cons

Company is struggling with AI and needed changes. Management is scrambling to figure out the future, and many teams and employees are being bulldozed as a result

4.0
16 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

* Refreshing focus on employee wellness * Brilliant colleagues * Compelling problems on interesting tools * Good work/life balance culture... generally (see cons) I've been at a few big tech companies and Adobe is one of my favorites. I feel empowered to make impactful changes here, I'm constantly stretching myself in fun ways, and the products we make are incredible. Product and engineering have big dreams, and all the resources we need to realize them.

Cons

* Big time crunch culture around arbitrary goals By far my biggest disappointment has been just how hard product pushes on big projects with arbitrary deadlines and difficult scope. It turns into cutting corners and delivering sub-par experiences even though we absolutely have the talent and capability to make some exceptional things if we just let the dang thing bake a few more months. I'd be more impressed with the tight clip if the goals were reasonable for good business reasons, but as far as I can tell the reason usually boils down to "some high-level manager wanted X and thought Y sounded like a good target date". * Comp growth leaves something to be desired. Raises feel pretty flat, though it's not the worst thing since stock rewards can be pretty good as appropriate for performance. Career progression is pretty good here too - I just find it odd how stale the base pay increases are year to year.

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