Good for a few years experience, not long term - Financial Crimes director Morgan Stanley Employee Review

For a firm that makes so much money, they are incredibly miserly. Make sure you negotiate a good salary when joining as year on year pay rises are poor. 2024 pay rises were very low (2.x% even for strong performers) with the narrative that it had been a challenging year for the firm. 2025 pay rises were worse (1.x% for some strong performers, with some colleagues not getting any raise), despite a significant focus on reducing costs in the last 12 months and the firm recording very strong results. Bonuses are OK but nothing great compared to market. It feels like the firm are happy to undervalue employees financially and take the risk on attrition than pay fair rises in the first place. Employees have been struggling through a period of double digit inflation and soaring costs while the C suite get double digit pay rises. Annual leave is very poor compared to European firms. Within Legal and Compliance, employees are expected to provide their own equipment for working at home. No budget is given for this. Other departments in the building get an allowance for things like monitors. In recent years the Legal and Compliance department have also been expected to pay for their own Christmas party. Travel to the London office for non-officers is non-existent now and generally needs to be self funded if you do want to go. Even small things which generate goodwill, like letting employees log off early ahead of bank holiday weekends, are being scaled back. Investment in tech and improving systems is minimal and so many processes depend on smart people doing manual work. While the department is currently working on a hybrid basis, there seems to be a general suspicion from senior management about working from home (maybe this is related to why there is no equipment budget; so as not to encourage it). The promotions process, particularly to officer level, is difficult to navigate and without a clear pathway to achievement. There’s calls every so often to ‘demystify’ the process for people; if the process seems like a mystery, something isn’t right. Glasgow is heavily stacked with Directors looking to move up to Vice President so it feels like there’s a queue that isn’t moving along any time soon. And unlike a lot of other companies, you can’t get promoted by successfully applying for a job at the level above your current grade. You have to be nominated, and go through a process where senior people speak up for you, and feels like a lot of ‘playing the game’ instead of coming in, working hard and being good at your job. Even in the main locations, it’s often seen easier to leave, get a promotion at a peer firm and then come back as an officer than actually make it through the promotions process at MS. The MS Glasgow office is what’s called a ‘Global Centre’ - that is, an outsourcing centre. It’s effectively regarded as Mumbai + and this is reflected in the fact a lot of the work done there isn’t particularly interesting or challenging and management feel isn’t valuable enough to merit being done in a main location. It feels like Glasgow supports London rather than working with London; that is perhaps the fact of it but it does give a two-tier vibe to how work is done, and the impression is that if you really want to work on interesting projects, make a good wage and progress your career, maybe you’d be better off in the London office (or somewhere else). If you’re ambitious then, given the issues with pay, promotion and quality of work, it doesn’t feel like an environment to push and challenge yourself. But if you want to work with nice people, earn an OK wage and have a good work life balance, then it’s a pleasant working environment.