It is impossible to state the amount of cons that exist at BNP. For starters, like many have noted, there is outright discrimination against Americans. This is actually illegal, but I suppose you can just add it to the very long list of sketchy and vaguely (and not so vaguely) illegal things BNP gets away with.
Fact is, it's ironic that Americans are not valued more an BNP, since the French way of running things means general operations are slow, bureaucratic, inefficient, and wasteful. BNP is filled to the brim with people whose job functions are redundant and they have no real function except to make life more difficult for other employees. All non trading departments are staffed with some of the least intelligent people I have ever met, and this was something that was accepted as normal. If the corporate communications team was honest, Mediocrity would be the banks tagline. Vacation is very important to the French-you start at 35 days-so the general modus operandi seems to be that everyone is on a permanent mental vacation, if not a literal one.
In the rare event you came across a who may have a hint of a brain, the culture at BNP encourages and rewards laziness. Emails and general requests have to be followed up on 4,5,6 times at the very least- often for things that most companies would consider important and top priority. It is almost as if BNP has no interest in excelling in anything at all, much less banking and making money- but is more concerned with paying as many people as possible to do as little as possible. It is quite easy to mention at least 5-6 peoples names in certain departments, and you wouldn't be able to find a single person who can say something positive about them.Yet they still have jobs despite the fact that their only dedication is to incompetence and at times, downright nastiness.
Management is, for the most part, incompetent and out of touch. Simple concepts like morale elude them completely. Nothing is transparent and they are actively seeking to get rid of as many people as possible to continue "nearshoring" jobs. If you are in NY they are nearshoring to Montreal (presumably because it is cheaper, and perhaps French Canadians are more compatible with their lax work and personal ethics). Already entire departments have been moved there. More than one review mentions this and it is pretty obvious but, they continue to be disingenuous about who will be getting the axe. Sadly, people who have family where their livelihood depends on their jobs are going to suffer before they have time to look for a new job. Many have become so complacent (brainwashed into the BNP way) that they won't know what hit them until it is too late.
Outside of the blatant anti American biased, there are plenty of other examples I witnessed regarding discrimination. Sexism, ageism, racism etc. In 5 years of work, countless people of minority status were fired and purportedly got settlements from the bank afterwards because in the court of law they would have been fined millions and subject to adverse media attention.
It is certainly an extremely toxic place to work, and the word has been used frequently in many of these reviews. The pay is well below market, and bonuses are low and often non-existent. I would expect it will only get worse since they are now beginning to pay the 9 billion dollar fine for trading with terrorist entities and then lying about it. For 7 years. If that doesn't exemplify the kind of egotistical, unethical people that run this sub par organization I am not sure what does.
Management will have town halls and meetings to talk and talk some more about how everything is ok and how employees are appreciated. Under no circumstance can this be considered sincere.
I have only touched on a few of the things wrong with BNP, but what finally needs to be mentioned is the dismal HR department, which also has been mentioned more than once in these reviews. If you ever have a problem at all, don't bother going to them. They protect themselves (and are universally derided and made fun of all throughout the organization- it is truly downright embarrassing for them) and the bank, and no one else. They have no interest in employees well being and are staffed by people who amplify the worst parts of the bank. Lazy and unintelligent almost across the board. Don't hold your breath if you email them, you and your grandchildren will have died and returned to dust before getting a response from some of them, employee mobility in particular. The person(s) responsible for this abject mess have presumably kept their jobs only bc of political connections within the bank, because like everything else, performance means nothing and mediocrity is rewarded. "Do as little as possible" must be what they say over and over again in team meetings.
At any given time 90% of your employees are looking elsewhere, that is how miserable they are. The other 10% have either been lulled into complacency bc of the benefits or know they can keep a decent yet toxic job by doing the bare minimum of work. It is only a matter of time before anyone with talent leaves. Unless you are desperate for a job, take whatever else is offered to you before working here.
