American Express reviews

4.1

81% would recommend to a friend

(18,612 total reviews)
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Stephen J Squeri

89% approve of CEO

79% positive business outlook

American Express has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 18,612 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The American Express employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Finance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

19K reviews
2.0
Mar 24, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

For these tough times, the jobs are relatively secure though I'm not sure why. I was expecting more layoffs than we've had, and we actually are hiring in some cases. The pay and benefits are better than other banks.

Cons

It's become embarrassing to be associated with Amex since we took billions of dollars from the government through the TARP program. Whenever I am with a group of people outside of work, someone naturally asks where I work. My answer of "American Express" gets the whole group's attention and I must then endure a long list of complaints about what Amex is doing with their money. The chiding even comes from my own relatives. Once someone even said they pay my salary now. Thank goodness I don't work for AIG, or I guess I would be getting physical threats, but it's wearing nonetheless. Back in the '90s I respected our CEO Ken Chenault (then a Sr VP) and our other Senior leaders a lot for their wise conservative decisions, but I was wrong about Ken being at all conservative - something a bank really must have - and now I just feel shame.

3.0
Mar 4, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

International business exposure is a plus. Also, many positions at Amex often have daily Interactions with many parts of the company including GCO, Sales/Marketing, Risk Management, Sourcing, CISO and Finance to name a few. You'll get a good understanding of how a business operates from A to Z. Generally speaking, the workforce is polite and people try to get along although the work environment can be very passive at times.

Cons

This used to be a stellar company to work for 4 years ago. Yes, the pay wasn't great but the back end compensation balanced it out if you worked there for at least two years. Bonuses, restricted stock and retirement contributions on top of the standard 401k match really helped out. The medical benefits were a lot better then as well. Now, this company is a shell of its former self-- more like "Meet the Spartans" than "300." A comedy of errors has been played out under current leadership which sent the stock price into the abyss. With the degradation of the back end compensation and decrease in medical benefits, the fact that pay is low is now very underscored.

1.0
Feb 6, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

American Express offers an above average benefits package, yet over the past few yeas the move to a HSA medical plan ensures that you will pay more in premiums and out of pocket year over year. Offers a flexible work environment at times, just don’t get caught taking advantage of it as it will be held against you in the long run.

Cons

Amex suffers from a lack of innovation, with an attitude of wait and see. Amex is not and will never be a market leader as the are too timid to take a risk, and when presented with a opportunity will turn away if will require any innovation or investment. The company is chock full of 'lifers' with 20 years or more in the same job. They offer no value to the company and are part of the drag on being able to make any significant change to catch up with the previous market changes. There is pervasive fear of it’s customer and merchant base. Nothing can be done, no changes can be made as there is constant fear of the customer. In lieu of an approach of customer satisfaction, there is an effort to keep the status quo, and not make any change for fear that some customer may not like it. Jr. and Sr. management live in fear of the layer above them. The result is that there is zero upwards communication of issues and problems faced at the lower levels. When problems are encountered that require input from the next level to solve them the solution is to push back on the line level to come up with a solution, not draw any attention to the issue as the leader may be made to look bad, and god knows you can not have that!

Viewing 193 - 195 of 18,612 Reviews

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