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Morgan Stanley

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Morgan Stanley reviews

3.9

76% would recommend to a friend

(19,814 total reviews)
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Ted Pick

80% approve of CEO

73% positive business outlook

Morgan Stanley has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 19,814 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Morgan Stanley employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Finanzas industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

20K reviews
1.0
Feb 7, 2024

Terrible Culture

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It was a very toxic work environment, and I can't think of anything good to say about it.

Cons

It's a huge company, and very impersonal. Many functions are outsourced and the overall model for jobs outside of investment management and sales is to use contractors. Benefits department is not filled with actual employees, but contract workers. The result is it doesn't create a cohesive culture. It's a very "big brother" kind of place where they make you log all of your volunteer hours as a part of your annual review along with all of the DEI events you went to throughout the year. Bonuses are paid out to the top dogs in the company. For example, the new CEO was awarded over $20 million while others in the company were told that there would be no bonuses, or very small ones. What a de-motivator that is! So, if you you're a managing director or higher, the comp is great. If you're lower down the totem pole, expect long hours and average pay. A very toxic culture and not a healthy place to work.

2.0
Dec 12, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Worked under E*TRADE before the conversion and things were pretty good overall. Compensation structure, shift bids, we were completely remote, etc. Even when wait times were bad due to the pandemic, things were bearable. Lots of OT available was a plus in my eyes.

Cons

Morgan Stanley took over everything. From the brokerage services to the operational processes down to the way we clock in. Seriously, our version of ADP was sleeker and our paystubs were organized better. It's like they took over everything without even looking to see if what we had was better. Anyway, things just suck for clients who currently hold E*TRADE accounts. Our workers feel it and clients feel it.

4.0
Mar 19, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

James Gorman is an ethical and extremely competent CEO. Generally intelligent colleagues, although this is less true than it used to be. If you land in the right team or area, you'll be working on cool tech. Great benefits. Truly working to rectify under-representation of women and PoC in senior positions. DEI initiatives are sincere and effective. Excellent work-life balance.

Cons

Poorly implemented forced-ranking and culling has made the work environment increasingly office-political from once being fantastically collaborative. This has a negative impact, but senior technology management seems ideologically aligned with dog-eat-dog (because senior tech management has also exempted itself from it) and so seems blind to the downside it has created. Increasingly bogged down by an "Agile transformation" and regimentation that in fact is simply layer upon layer of new bureaucratic process and changed labels for everything. It's so far from what agility actually means that it's a bad joke. Promotions are less about merit and more about what team you happen to land in. I worry about what will happen when James Gorman leaves. Next layer of management is not nearly so inspiring.

Viewing 67 - 69 of 19,814 Reviews

Glassdoor has 24,389 Morgan Stanley reviews submitted anonymously by Morgan Stanley employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Morgan Stanley is right for you.