Whenever I read a feature on American Express I am not sure if I should laugh or cry.

I usually feel nauseous. Contrary to the impression The Argus gave (September 7), the history of Amex in Brighton did not begin in 1977.

Its original European travel office was at 154-5 Edward Street, on the opposite side, and it opened in 1967.

I worked there as a data control clerk in the Seventies. The contract of employment I signed offered me a 371/2 hour working week and a starting salary of £65 a calendar month - which had risen to £100 at the time I left, 14 months later - plus luncheon vouchers at 15p each working day.

The job ran on overtime, which I was paid for, and my actual working hours were more like an average of 60 a week, sometimes involving Saturdays as well. While overtime was not compulsory, anyone who refused soon learned that their future in the job was "limited" and staff turnover was high.

If anyone had mentioned the phrase "work-life balance" to us then we would have collapsed in fits of ironical laughter - that is, if we had not already collapsed from exhaustion.

I suffered what would now be called burn-out, becoming unable to concentrate on the job I was supposed to be doing, let alone anything else.

The working atmosphere was one of competition rather than co-operation, with permanent interdepartmental rivalry manifesting itself in the most stupid ways.

People either got on or got out and I soon realised I could never be, or even want to be, Amex's idea of a company person.

A friend and colleague of mine from those days, who was then a computer operator, recently died at the age of just 54 after some 30 years' service with Amex. I find it impossible to believe his death was not, in some way, work-related.

I challenge Amex now to convince me it has shed the hard-boiled, macho, anti-trade union "shape up or ship out" culture of long hours and tedious work that I so gladly escaped from in 1974. The American Dream was a waking nightmare.

-P D Jackson, Byron Street, Hove