Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2020-06-20
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Review for Controls Management Organization (CMO) team [formerly known as Oversight and Control (O&C)]
Pros: 1 - Training portal has multiple courses to learn from
2 - Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) available to financially support employees to up-skill themselves through certified courses from various institutions
3 - Compensation is fairly good
4 - Free transport facility provided both to and from office premises (AC bus/cabs)
5 - Subsidized food rates and food card available for employees working in select shifts
6 - Internal job movement opportunities/portal available
Cons: Controls Management Organization (CMO) team [previously known as Oversight and Control (O&C)] at JP Morgan Chase:

JPMC is a great company, but CMO team is unfortunately not so good.

1 - CMO team is situated in an enclosed room, deliberately kept cut off from the rest of the teams/employees outside. It's a very small, cramped up enclosed area (max 16 seats), and also claustrophobic. The management deliberately does not want people outside this room to know what exactly is happening inside. Shouting loudly in the room and passing insulting comments to any team member is common. Abusive language is freely used to intimidate employees in this team.

2 - Senior Management members in this team are extremely arrogant and rude. They override firm-wide policies and create their own rules, thus misusing lack of knowledge of most employees. Senior management’s behavior is the major reason for the high employee attrition rate in this team.

3 - The firm has mandatory block leaves for employees at certain positions, who have access to some critical financial data. Hence, an employee has to take 10 days PL at a stretch and be off-work for that time.
However, in CMO team, management forces block leaves for the entire team, even though not a single employee has direct access to any financial data. CMO team is a support function under the corporate sector, and is not involved in company's financial data.

4 - Senior Management at CMO team forces team members to attend voluntary company events, irrespective of the employee's consent. CMO team employees are forcibly made to register and sign-up for events and if someone doesn't show up on that day, they are reprimanded heavily and threatened with dire consequences.

5 - Usually, when companies follow daylight saving, time in and time out for employees change by an hour or so.
However, in the CMO team, during the months of daylight saving, time in remains the same for all employees, only the time out gets extended by an hour. Hence, every year during the Daylight saving months, all employees in the CMO team are forced to put in extra work hours daily without receiving any monetary benefit for the same.

6 - JPMC provides food cards for employees who work in certain shifts which can be used to make purchases at the cafeteria. CMO team members work in 10 hour shifts daily during Daylight Saving months, but are still not allowed to avail this facility since all managers are strictly instructed by the senior management to reject all such requests from employees.

7 - Denims are included as part of business casuals, provided that they are not torn/ripped/distressed in any form. But in CMO team, the ED strictly instructed everyone to not follow firm-wide dress code policy, until further instructions from him. This behavior is still prevalent and unchecked in a brand like JP Morgan.

8 - Leave management is extremely bureaucratic in CMO team. Managers intrude employees' personal lives and demand to know reason for each and every leave an employee applies for. Although Planned Sick Leaves are allowed for the purpose of a surgery, managers in this team dissuade team members from availing such benefits which the company provides to all its employees.

9 - Employees in CMO team have to submit their entire year's planned leaves in advance. List of planned leaves for next year are to be submitted in Nov-Dec of current year. They make false claims to team members that these would be tentative dates and can be changed it later, if needed. But later in the year, if you want to change any PL date, employees are made to hear nasty things like they're being unprofessional.

10 - Managers and senior management deliberately avoid email communications with team members. Email requests for change in leave date, approval for Tuition Assistance Programme (TAP) offered to pursue courses/certifications which are sponsored by the firm, are blatantly disregarded without giving any valid reason for the refusal. Employees are intimidated and scared with harsh consequences and straight-away refused by managers to reply on the email requests.

11 - If you Google the term "People Skills", chances are that you'll come across certain soft skills like effective communication, listening skills, empathy, etc. which can help one elevate their career in an organization. However, in the Controls Management Organization team (CMO), "people skills" translates to "boss-pleasing skills"
Seniors in CMO team at JP Morgan cannot accept a difference of opinion or cannot take "No" for an answer.

12 - Favoritism is rampant in CMO team where managers choose their favorite employees and cover up or make excuses for the poor work of their incompetent favorites. They also tend to give their favorites better timelines and projects, more attention, and turn a blind eye to their shoddy work and lack of talent. If an employee blindly obeys management's orders, without questioning, he/she is showered with innumerable praises and accolades. Quality of deliverables, talent and hard work will be of no importance if you ever question the senior management or even suggest process changes.
Owing to this culture, team members feel discouraged to voice their opinions. Senior management is not open to accepting constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement.

13 - JPMC has ample opportunities for internal job mobility. In CMO team, once an employee informs their manager of mobility, they are treated very badly. Excessive work load, long working hours and all kinds of strategies are used to discourage the person from moving out of the team. There have been incidents when the senior management has refused to relieve employees who bagged internal opportunities and as a result, that position was given away to another candidate by the hiring team.