New York City, New York-based American Express Company, the iconic bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment cards, has announced a major restructuring and a 5% reduction in its global workforce.
The restructuring will impact an estimated 3,500 employees.
American Express plans thousands of layoffs after two years of hiring
According to Chairman and CEO Steve Squeri ...
"Our strong business performance throughout the year has enabled us to step up our marketing and technology investments. We decided to use some of the gain to invest in making the organization more efficient and better prepared for the future. As a result, we took a $336 million charge for restructuring in the quarter, which is expected to result in the elimination of approximately 5% of our positions globally. Because this quarter's charge is somewhat larger than what we typically do, I will take a moment to provide a bit more context. We have got good momentum, but to accelerate innovation and win over the next few years, we needed to become a more agile and efficient organization."
With that objective in mind, earlier this year, I asked the senior leadership team to identify ways to streamline their organizations, align their teams on the most critical deliverables, and reduce layers to speed decision-making. When completed, we believe this exercise will help us operate and execute more effectively and give us greater capacity to invest in our business priorities."
Change is constant, and it's coming. Tomorrow will always come, no matter how much you try to ignore it. Life offers no guarantees, nor promises of a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something terrible hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. While many employees can read the writing on the wall, why do most assume it’s targeted at someone else? Are you wondering, "Am I Next?"