American Express Reviews

Pros

Great brand with global recognition.
People at all levels are polite and respectful.
Interesting future in the payments industry.
Most employees allowed to work from home.

Cons

There are many great people in the HR organization but the senior leadership tends to promote and provide opportunities to only a few select employees; other HR employees do not gain exposure or opportunities. In my opinion, HR promotions are not based on skills and qualifications, merely favoritism.

Advice to Senior Management

Replace HR leadership with grounded, realistic and balanced individuals. Adding some more men to the mix may break up the "sorority-like" culture in HR.

Pros

worlwilde company where you can travel and change post everywhere

Cons

Worldwilde compagny where you must be the best to succed

Pros

flexible workplace, great benefits and work-life balance

Cons

inflexible and entrenched culture through the company

Pros

Good Work/Life Balance, Good People

Cons

Corporate Politics, Health Plan is expensive

Advice to Senior Management

Improve Health Plan

Pros

Excellent training especially on the phone
Rich incentives(as long as you meet/exceeds the metrics)
Always something going on(so many committee you can join in)
Excellent work development and support(concrete action plan)
Very positive coach(mine was, she was the best in my entire career)
Diverse workforce/culture(like World University)

Cons

Favoritism (most get promoted because of who they knows not what you know)
Phoney people(esp those that are band 30- they think their higher than Ken Chenault)
Constant fear of letting go (don't be surprise if your cube mate be gone the following day)
Highly stressful job(constant monitoring of your metrics)
Big brother house(keeping track of your time/got to write my time even going to bathroom, so I can make it up)

Advice to Senior Management

True manager should promote employee base on knowledge, skills, and what he/she can bring or contribute to the team not base on your brown nosing skills. Employees find total disgust and lost respect on your bad judgement in selecting your favorite pet. You should review the company values mission and value- you are not following the "blue box value" instead it falls under "gray/murky box value". It is a box full of mud and S%^&*t. Someone has to open and review the content of your box.

Pros

*Room for advancement if you are willing to weather the storms (i.e.- constant restructuring, re-org's)
*If working virtual is important to you, this is the company culture

Cons

*Leadership are not industry experts
*many layers to get anything done. one department doesn't understand what the other is communicating.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to stop being the 'pretty picture' and get their hands dirty to get the job done.

Pros

Work life balance, stress free environment, culture

Cons

No differentiation on performance, v limited growth opportunities, no development focus

Advice to Senior Management

Differentiate on performance, develop and provide people with more opportunities

Pros

There was great flexibility and offered a competitive salary.

Cons

The leadership is very disorganized. My manager led two different teams with different responsibilities. I received very poor feedback and was very independent. I received little to no feedback and unless a bad decision was made on my part.

Advice to Senior Management

Educate your managers and have them understand the jobs they are managing. A training leader should have several years experience and be able to answer or make leadership decisions.

Pros

diverse employee base
good facility in Phoenix
good benefits
comprehensive performance management process
ethical and compliant corporate culture

Cons

limited talent development
constrained upward mobility
below benchmark compensation

Advice to Senior Management

put more emphasis on applying talent development principles at all levels
resist the urge to chase every new technology fad

Pros

- Good place to start a career
- Looks great on the resume
- Company does generally try to do the right thing

Cons

- No longer the same working environment as 5 years ago
- Limited opportunities for advancement
- Many of the best people are leaving
- HR department constantly stumbles along without realizing damage done
- Imbalance between executive compensation vs. employee base
- Lower base salary when compared to industry and competitors

Advice to Senior Management

- Massive loss of talent at the manager level is due to the lack of opportunities. The overly flat structure causes ambitious, knowledgeable, and talented employees to look elsewhere. The "BlueWork" program is a disaster.