Corporate Bureaucracy and Sneakiness Hidden Under Casual Clothing
Pros
Work from home, 6 months mat leave (5 months paternity leave), good vacation policy and flexibility. Cafeteria is convenient.
Cons
Pay is terrible. Expect to make 50% more at any competitor. And good luck to you if you've been loyal to the company. Expect to make less than all of your peers and to be told at year end that "2%" is a great raise! Political garbage masked under the facade of jeans and sneakers. Make no mistake, everyone here is eager to throw you under the bus. I have never met so many mean people in competition with one another (as a result of poor leadership, also throwing their peers under the bus). Too many MBA's in mid-level management who don't know how to do work but frantically run around from meeting to meeting, giving the illusion of doing work. People with airs of self-importance over meaningless jobs are at every corner. What takes any other place a week would take Amex about 6 months - no one here is brave enough to make a decision and VPs are micro-managers who need their managers running through every rabbit hole before getting to "yes." And when something does take too long for a reason, there is always someone to blame, rather than the understanding that Amex is a huge company that requires a lot of back and forth and facilitation among the teams. It doesn't get any more political than this place, where you're valued on how many coffee chats you have, how pretty your decks are (for internal meetings. Did I miss the memo on needing an agency design degree to present to my boss?), rather than your work. "Thought leadership" constantly pushed, but then ideas are dismissed immediately. Incredibly de-motivating place to work when you have to jump through hoops and are encouraged to fake a personality if you are not exactly "Blue Box." I've heard of someone whose leader now makes the team do two networking activities a week. This is more like summer camp where employees are scolded and babied rather than treated like adults with decision-making power. This place is utterly lacking in heart. The eagerness with which tones of condescension are employed rather than camaraderie and light-heartedness is astounding.