Two things were very tough to endure at Adobe: 1. Isolation, 2. Offshoring.
Isolation
Regarding isolation, this applied to me and my "coworkers", but I think others at Adobe were well-integrated with a team. So my experience in the group I worked in could have been unique. But small teams and geographically-distributed teams are subject to LOTS of isolation. In the 3+ years I worked there, I worked in three different physical office buildings, and moved my desk four times. I worked for four different bosses in three remote locations. Most of all, the people I worked with on a day-to-day basis were also geographically dispersed, and, with me moving around a lot, and other people sitting around me moving around, I never felt a sense of community. The people in the desks near me were not on my team and I didn't work with them. Often they were a bit stuck-up, or unfriendly, or from a sales culture that emphasized a "dressy business casual" attire for some reason, which was at odds with my more casual garb (despite the fact they were not customer-facing). Moreover, they had little interest in technical subjects, and therefore encounters were often awkward. I always felt under-dressed, but I had no reason to dress up in my role.
Our group had lots of turnover, so there were constantly new and/or different individuals I worked with. I therefore felt physically isolated, and, a bit psychologically isolated because our team was relatively small and not well-known within Adobe and with customers.
Lastly, there was no good reason given for why I was moved around so much. I almost felt it was at the whims of facilities and/or management.
Offshoring
Adobe uses offshoring aggressively for certain teams and I'm not sure why. It didn't work in my department. Resources in India were poorly trained (if at all), stuck in their ways, very bureaucratic, and under the tight control of another managerial organization, so they had little, if any, incentive to work together or get ideas/insight from their counterparts in North America. Most importantly, I found most of my working time spent fixing or redoing a lot of work that was of poor quality that was previously performed by offshore resources. Offshore teams went through significant turnover, but were still firmly in place, even in positions of authority when I left, with a regular set of newcomers to replace people that had resigned or moved to another department. Offshore teams were often extremely slow and error-prone in their work, and often made very bad decisions about processes and tools that had very negative consequences.
Conclusion
Adobe has lots of great people and products. Unfortunately, in my case, my team at Adobe suffered from much political "power trips", isolation, hierarchical, and top-down approaches, and "upper level" teams with "carte blanche". These people are self-proclaimed experts that will look down at you, always find fault with your work, give no thanks for the hard work and struggles that you do, and generally try hard to bully and make life miserable for you, simply because you are "below" them.
Be careful working at this company. It's a big company, so others' experiences could be more positive. But mine and others were not so pleasant. If you work with offshore teams or in a small or little-known group/department, watch out. The fancy buildings, fancy food, and benefits are nice, but when you are isolated and not respected for your work, that negates all the good things at Adobe.
