Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2018-02-16
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Big, Dumb and Slow-- but trying to improve
Pros: JP Morgan Chase is huge, and the employee experience varies tremendously from one Line Of Business to another. The executive leadership at JPMC, starting with Jamie Dimon and on down, is attempting to continuously improve the performance and the culture of the organization.  (Jamie and his direct reports are commonly referred to as "the Operating Committee".)

And, as with any company, the employee experience is determined 90% by their immediate manager. As a mid-level manager, I was able to create great working conditions for my teams of employees. They were happy and productive. The teams were recognized for their achievements, and employee turnover was low.  My methods were aligned with the new culture of Servant-Leadership which the Operating Committee has been trying to foster, and my team members were recognized, rewarded, and promoted.

The firm encourages internal mobility, and there are many opportunities to move around from department to department (however, rarely with increase in compensation). And, the package offered during layoffs is also moderately generous (based on time with the firm).
Cons: On the positive side, I was given a "free hand" to operate my teams based on my best judgement. The problem is, so were my colleagues and my managers (and their managers). And, there are only the poorest of feedback loops established for monitoring the health of the culture and the happiness of team members.  The big reform during my decade at JPMC: We went to an employee "pulse" survey every year, instead of every three years.
The scale and tradition of JPMC is both a strength and a weakness. During my years there, I came to admire the resilience of an organization which has lasted over two centuries. A colleague's retort stuck with me: "Big, dumb and slow worked for the dinosaurs, too."

There is a tremendous amount of waste at JPMC, at both small and large scales. Much of the wasted effort, including failed IT projects amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, is due to failures in communication and coordination. The Operating Committee recognizes this and is trying to change the firm's culture. However, the culture is very resistant. 

My favorite story of the resistance of the culture is the young woman who explained to me that she used to be a business analyst who wrote 200-page requirement documents for a development team. But three years ago, she proclaimed proudly, she became a Scrum Master for an Agile Team. I asked about her job responsibilities as a Scrum Master: "I run a daily meeting, and I write 200-page requirement documents."