American Express

One of the most generous pay and benefits packages outside of London.

Good working hours. Some people work late, but you don't feel obliged to work past 5 pm, and many people leave early and work flexible patterns.

Occasional or regular home-working is possible in many teams.

A fair amount of 'fun' activities and training opportunities onsite to keep employee morale up.

Lovely new office building.

Typically a male-dominated workplace in tech organizations.

A macho culture exists in some teams. If you're not into sports, cars, and going to the gym, you might not have much to chat about with your colleagues.

The performance/year-end ratings process is tedious, draining, unfair, and unpleasant. Nasty feedback is given under the guise of 'constructive criticism'.

Frequent "restructures" occur, with redundancies nearly every year. The job doesn't feel secure.

I have seen leaders bully employees, with no easy way to report this without fear of consequences.

American corporate culture has an impact. For obvious reasons, a lot of the 'good stuff' happens over in the US, so UK teams are often left feeling powerless or second-best.

I have also seen younger colleagues ostracized in teams of long-tenured employees.

There is a lot of secrecy surrounding all sorts of decision-making and a lack of openness. Of course, some things have to be confidential at a financial company, but some decisions that affect employees should be openly discussed rather than whispering about literally everything as if we're Cold War spies!

Lots of incompetent people hold onto their positions by charming leadership. 'Networking' seems more important than actual competence at doing your job.

Likewise, incompetent people seem to feel threatened by employees who are actually talented. So, some of these talented individuals end up at the bottom of the pile. Of course, the sensible ones leave for greener pastures!

The year-end rating system pits employees against each other instead of encouraging collaboration. Again, charming your leaders and blowing your own trumpet loudly seems to be a faster route to success than actually doing a good job.

It's even worse the higher up you go, with VPs always trying to protect and expand their empire as if it's Game of Thrones. This is not immediately evident when you're lower down the ranks, but have a frank discussion with a VP, and you realize how much they're playing each other for bonuses and survival.

Terrible food and coffee in the canteen...

Cut the corporate politics and be genuine and open with employees.

Improve the year-end process to be more positive.

Make the workplace more welcoming for women. Less 'lad culture' and more female tech hires would be a good start.

Better coffee and canteen food!