Remote Work Bad For Productivity? Adobe CEO Says Office Work Improves ‘Urgency’

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen on Tuesday said that office-based work has certain benefits that are difficult to replicate with remote work. In a wide-ranging CNBC interview, Narayen noted that it was more difficult to build momentum with new projects when most employees are homebound.

“Projects which are well underway, we’ve seen tremendous momentum continue, but when you’re trying to create a new project, you want people around that water cooler. You want that sense of urgency,” he said. “I feel like productivity is impacted a little bit in that.”

Despite this, Narayen said that Adobe will not rush to return workers to their many offices around the world, as the concerns surrounding COVID-19 still persist and remote workers are still sufficiently productive.

Narayen also said that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the widespread shutdowns, Adobe is likely to reconsider its physical locations. Moving forward, the company may consider relying less on smaller satellite officers. While work may still be done in these areas, it may rely more on bigger locations, like its headquarters in San Jose, California.

“We will continue to have locations,” Narayen explained. “They’ll be very different in terms of how they’re set up, the structure associated with them, the capacity. But it’s all areas we’re working through.”

Remote work is expected to persist at major companies for many years, even once the coronavirus pandemic subsides. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has stated that his company will allow employees to work from home all long as they wish, potentially forever. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also said that some of his employees may continue to work remotely for another 5-10 years.

“We’re working hard to figure out how, as all of these new people come on board [remotely], how do we instill in them the values?” Narayen said. “How do we continue to evolve the culture, bringing their smart ideas to bear? As social distancing and the ability to actually have people in safe locations happen, it’s something that we’re continuing to work on, but that’s ahead of us.”