American Express Reviews

Pros

Overall great place to learn about and implement world class customer service. Blue box values are about integrity in business. Great opportunities for learning. They used to provide $5000 per year for employee education, maybe still do. Lots of empowerment for decision-making. Giving programs are established to benefit the greater community. Beautiful values.

Cons

Major drawback is politics that enable incompetent, lazy leaders to benefit from the system, promote their friends and hold back everyone else's growth. Another problem is lack of job security. Sweeping layoffs are followed by hiring at a lower pay rate.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to the sloughs in management. They are using the system setup to benefit all for their own dysfunctional purposes. They can be liars and blamers and don't represent well. They are poor managers.

Pros

Team and family members are always so helpful and willing to share to ensure that your success is golden

Cons

Can be stressful at times when our systems run slow you tend to get chewed out by cardmembers due to long hold times

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work as you all are always stressing the importance of advancements in our careers.....the motivation is outstanding

Pros

- Great work culture, mutual respect
- Relatively higher focus on meritocracy
- Highly respected brand
- Stable and secure presence
- Ability to stay profitable in adverse economies

Cons

- To hierarchical and matrixed (typical corporate environment)
- Indirect feedback style prevalently used, which can sometimes be counter productive
- Decision making takes too long

Advice to Senior Management

Create a leaner organization with clear accountability bestowed upon each person as per his or her level, to achieve more efficiency and effectiveness in business strategy, decision making and operations

Pros

Training for people to structure thought more effectively and apply that to real business situations for mutual benefit and growth

Cons

Extremely political environment that causes people to behave in a way that commercially is not beneficial to either the individual or the company. This behaviour would not be accepted in more commercial organisations.

Advice to Senior Management

Leverage the intellectual capital within the organisation by Improving the commercial goals and then rewarding achievement of these not politically astute individuals with little real talent

Pros

Salary and benefits are ok. Work/Life balance is fine. Depending on what you do and how much management interferes, the work could be interesting. Company makes money in spite of managerial malpractice.

Cons

Most middle level managers are out of their depth and make up for it by surrounding themselves with sycophants. It's amazing they haven't destroyed the company yet.

Advice to Senior Management

RETIRE! In my experience, A's hire A's and B's hire C's and C's hire F's. Based on what I saw of middle management, you guys are C's. The sooner you leave, the sooner American Express can regain it's leadership position.

Pros

Flexible working environment. Diverse backgrounds of employees.

Cons

Many experienced and skilled employees are under paid. For promotion oppotunities, external candidates are received more favourably than internal staff

Pros

Pay, benefits, and I incentives are good

Cons

In the department I work in I am surprised by the lack of customer service, training, technology, operations. Was expecting a well oiled working machine and it is totally opposite. Outdated operations and technology for the industry we are in, we support the credit card side.

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to the basics, bench mark within the industry to find best practices, find the best tools already in existence and build on that, invest in training, hiring people in management with industry knowledge. Each management person should look at it as if this division was there own business, maybe things would before important to them. Just so surprised that the outside image of American Express is not what I have experienced pertaining to my job, lacks alot.

I think of Ken Chenault studied the department I work in he would agree, he only knows what he is given access to.

Pros

Benefits are great
Many employees work very hard to do a good job
Above average salaries for similar positions at competitors
Sterling perception amongst most potential clients

Cons

No conseuqnces to lower/mid leve managers for not doing their job in coaching, mentoring and fairly evaluating staff
Revolving door in sales
-quotas the same throughout the country not taking into consideration geographic differences of territories; resulting in consistently unattainable quotas in many geographic territories
Open door policy is a myth and exists only on paper
Arbitrary decisions around who stays and who goes when downsizing takes place

Advice to Senior Management

Upper level and mid level management should tseek the input of employees leaving the company have to say even if they leave through downsizing. Exit interviews should be mandatory.

Pros

Good Work Life Balance
Great Collaboration Amongst Employees and Leaders
Fairly low pressure with lots of available resources
Good Place to Work if you have two incomes or are a mom with kids

Cons

Low base pay
Awful bonuses compared with the rest of financial services
Highly political environment for promotions
Fairly long processes for decision making

Advice to Senior Management

American Express will continue to lose talented people if they don't offer up more promotional opportunities and better pay in NY.

Pros

good benefits and pay opportunities

Cons

Lack of skilled middle management. Tend to be incompetent and lack integrity.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to spend more time training middle management.