American Express reviews

- Performance review process punishes risk takers or those who push for multi-year transformational projects. Those with minimal risk or small projects that are implemented in less than a year receive favorable ratings. - Everyone is graded on a curve - which does not work well when you are on a top performing team being compared against middle performing groups. A person rated at 50% in a top 5% team will not receive recognition (or very very minimal) different than someone who is rated at 50% at a 50% performing team. It does not make sense to go above and beyond at American Express and expect corresponding recognition/compensation. - What once was a very collaborative and engaging company is rallying around silos, personal projects, and avoids risks. Too much finger pointing happens from long entrenched middle management who are able to manage through the basics. - Blue Work program, while highly regarded by the HR department, has forced many employees into situations that have negatively impacted ability to perform. - Innovation is talked about frequently, but strict adherence to quarterly results drives funding for new programs. Great ideas that align with long term market/industry trends get cut all the time if they don't deliver within a very short timeframe. All technical development of new assets is handled by 3rd party firms that staff with low cost resources - almost always with offshore teams that lack the qualifications needed. It is no surprise when the products are of mediocre quality at best. - Everyone is scared. With layoffs, inconsistent ratings, and constant budget cuts, it is hard to predict what comes next. The Execs are fighting over who will be the next CEO which has a downstream impact over their organizations. - Ken Chenault yet again had a 24% pay increase to $28 million dollars last year. Many employees made less this year than last (lower bonus), due to “tougher company performance” which included an artificial restructuring charge so they could lay off 5500 people. How can someone trust their company after seeing that behavior?

- Stack performance ratings unfortunately inhibits collaboration and innovation - Poor management practices- army style ranking. This inhibits innovation and demoralises many employees. Unfortunately, the different ranks are not equal, so you could have a person in a lower rank with a larger and more senior role than somebody in a higher rank. Also you can have people in the same rank with 2 years experience up until 15 years. However, they are both treated as being at the same level of experience. - Poor pay and is a lot lower than competitors - It's all about who you know, not what you know - Tenured professionals end up getting promotions over more experienced and more intelligent less tenured people - Senior management are very arrogant and think you are too far beneath them to even say hello - Senior management don't have enough business experience to lead or manage a business as they've all just worked their way up the chain and have been promoted due to tenure - Poor technology and systems make the company very slow to react - Performance reviews are based on who management like opposed to who has delivered more value to the business