Coming together as a family with our Adobe parents

For the fourth year in a row, Adobe is proud to be named a Best Workplace for Parents. This year we rank no. 14 out of the top 100 companies, up 8 spots from last year.

To determine the 2020 Best Workplaces for Parents list, the Great Place to Work organization analyzes confidential survey feedback representing more than 4.8 million US employees. Parents and non-parents responded to over 60 survey questions describing the extent to which their organization creates a Great Place to Work For All.

And here at Adobe, we take care of our parents. This means not only caring about their career success and personal wellbeing, but also supporting their family as well. We do this by offering meaningful family benefits, such as 26-weeks paid time-off for parental leave, offering adoption assistance, backup child care, and much more.

To get a closer look at what life at Adobe is like as a parent, we popped into our Adobe Parents group to find out. For Katie Arseneault and Michelle Lucero, they found that Adobe’s parental leave policy was incredibly impactful—allowing them to spend precious time with their newborns. Similarly, Swarna Saraf and Ryan Dyck were able to take irreplaceable time-off, but they also noted how the amazing support from their teams made a big impact. And outside of parental leave, Nag Medida was proud to share how Adobe’s products allowed him to think creatively with his daughter. Here are their stories.

Irreplaceable time together

Katie Arseneault with her baby girl.

“My husband and I have a 19-month-old daughter and are expecting our second in March. I was thankfully able to take advantage of the parental leave policy with my daughter and I’m looking forward to doing the same for our next. I cannot tell you how nice it was to know I had six whole months to focus solely on my family and know that I had my job to go back to. I was able to bond with my daughter and get through those first few difficult months of parenthood without having to worry about work. This time is irreplaceable!

Additionally, with COVID, we have not been able to take any of our vacations that we planned this year. As a result, I’ve felt more burned out than usual since I haven’t really taken much of a mental break at all. The Adobe global company days off have been INCREDIBLE for me—they allow me to mentally reset and since they are during the week, my daughter can still be in daycare so I get time for ME. Any parent knows how valuable that kind of time is. Adobe is a company that truly cares about their employees’ wellbeing and I am so thankful to work here” Katie said.

Michelle Lucero and her happy family.

Michelle had a similar story to share, saying, “I started at Adobe back in February of 2019 when I was 10-weeks pregnant with my fourth and final baby. I already had a busy house with three boys, but this was a baby girl and we were so excited about growing our family. However, I was nervous about how a new employer would respond to the news after only a few weeks of employment. Adobe received the news with joy, grace, understanding and excitement. The benefits allowed me to share my final month of pregnancy (the “nesting month”) preparing for the arrival of our baby girl and then three additional months of paid leave. What a special time I had at home during my maternity—spending dedicated time with each child and especially with the baby. When I returned to Adobe, I was quickly traveling again for customer meetings and the best benefit of all was the free Milk Stork service!

Fast forward to 2020, the ultimate year of unknowns and constant changes, and yet Adobe has raised the bar with patience, understanding and accommodations for working parents. I am really proud to work at Adobe, especially as a mom to four little ones.”

A family at home and at work

Swarna Saraf’s baby boy.

As for Swarna, it was also the support from her team that was impactful. “Kudos to Adobe for its great maternity benefits! My team, in particular, went above and beyond to ensure I had a great time during and after my pregnancy. The team threw a surprise virtual baby shower and sent their good wishes. My manager worked with me to ensure that my assignments were challenging and impactful, but also did not cause me any unnecessary stress. She also made sure to stay in-touch and check in on me during my maternity leave. My teammates also took up additional tasks and responsibilities to fill-in for me.

My baby boy is already 5-months old and I recently returned to work. The team extended a warm welcome once again and is helping me transition back. I cannot thank my team enough for their continued support and I can say with confidence that I feel proud to be an Adobe parent.”

Ryan couldn’t agree more, noting that it’s the people at Adobe that have also made a profound impact in his life. Here’s what he had to say about his experience being a foster parent.

“About 5 years ago my wife and I decided to embark on the journey of becoming foster parents after seeing the tremendous need in our State and community. Little did we know, our very first placement, a 2-day old little boy, would change our lives and our biological daughter’s lives in so many positive ways, forever impacting how we think about family and the needs around us.

I always knew Adobe had a great culture and highly valued their employees, but the support and encouragement I received from my co-workers, manager and extended leadership team when we first became foster parents was overwhelming—and it still is all these years later! Adobe’s culture, along with outstanding leave and reimbursement benefit programs for foster and adoptive parents make it a great place to work for all parents!

Ending where I started, our little 2-day old boy I mentioned earlier…Well he’s now 4-years old, doing great and was recently reunited full-time with his biological mother! Thank you, Adobe, for all the support!”

Creating new bonds

Nag Medida and his daughter with the book they created together.

For Nag, having access to Adobe’s products have allowed him to bond with his daughter in a new and creative way, especially during the pandemic.

“A couple months into my new role I got this email about a story challenge for kids. Together with Save the Children, Adobe asked employees to submit original short stories to help spread positivity to children around the world. I showed this to my daughter, Deethya, and we were excited to volunteer for this opportunity together. She is in the 5th grade, hasn’t been to school the last six months, and is taking classes online. She is an avid reader and writer, and loves to color too.

One of the perks about working at Adobe is we get the full suite of Adobe products for free. Within just 24-hours I was able to use those tools to create a book and publish an original story by Deethya. She was super excited to see the book and wanted to create her own. I would have never imagined she would author and illustrate so well. She wanted to tell a story about the city we live in and create a coloring book. We spent a month creating it and we published her first book on Amazon. We love this experience so much that we created a website together, teaching children how they can create and publish their own books, with a little help from their parents.”

These stories are truly representative of the culture and people we have at Adobe, and we take great joy in knowing that these experiences aren’t singular to a few employees here. This company is shaped by a diversity of unique, meaningful and deeply personal stories, and that’s what truly makes Adobe a best workplace.