Pros
In the past, an associate-level employee, without a college degree, had a high level of job security, as long as they were hardworking, knowledgable, and able to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Wages were lower than for comparable positions in other companies, but offset by great time-off and medical benefits. Opportunities for advancement were always available for the those adept at playing politics.
Kontras
Extremely political and there's a definite caste system at play. Feedback from lower-level employees is consistently disregarded, no matter how valuable. The open-door policy is a joke and utilized at your own risk. The newest hurdle Customer Care Professionals have to deal with is TBASS, a feedback tool that asks customers to evaluate their experience with American Express. Their are five ratings the customers can give for the entire process from start to finish: excellent, very good, good, fair and poor. The problem for CCPs is that they are held responsible for the score given for the entire process, not just the part of the process they're responsible for. For example, a customer can provide feedback that they were unhappy with their line of credit (something that a CCP has no control over) and give the process a poor rating; the CCP is then held accountable for that rating. Adding salt to the wound is that fact the majority of the calls have to receive an excellent rating (Top Box Score) or the CCPs don't meet the goals for "customer satisfaction. So, if a CCP receives one excellent rating and ten very good ratings, they could be subject to performance counseling. The focus for 2009 is going to be on Recommend to Friend scores, which again will be a difficult if not impossible goal to reach with the tightened credit policies that American Express has implemented. And athough time-off benefits are still excellent, medical coverage has deteriorated.