Vail gives their President of Mountain Division the boot

Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) today announced the appointment of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Bill Rock as President of the company’s Mountain Division, effective May 1, 2023, and announced that current President James O’Donnell will no longer be with the company, effective March 3, 2023.

Bill Rock to become President of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division, effective May 1, 2023.

Source: prnewswire BROOMFIELD, Colo., March 2, 2023

“I want to extend my gratitude to James for his leadership and contributions to Vail Resorts during his 22 years at our company,” said Vail Resorts Chief Executive Officer Kirsten Lynch.

VailEpicFail team comment: “Yeah, right. Your “extended gratitude” has zero value. Everyone knows you threw this dude like used condom. So shove your “gratitude”, Lynch.

The new dude (Bill Rock) had assumed the new position the day before (March 1) the PR release (March 2). While the old dude (James O’Donnell) has been given the boot, effective the next day (March 3). So unless the old dude got caught on something very inappropriate, the way how Vail disposes their employees is rather disgusting. We are not surprised.

“Forced overtime at Vail. No enforcement of safety”

No enforcement of safety or any rules, no working heat, no secure mail room in employee housing. no HR department to contact and lots of screw ups i.e. tax rates being entered wrong, hours missing from paychecks, significant delays in pay, certain departments hired with full-time hour expectations but then REQUIRED to work overtime and not able to request days off. way too big of a company and way overstaffed, and overpromising to guests/staff to not have employee support (HR functions outsourced to virtual company which take weeks to respond to urgent matters, if at all).

Advice to Management: Stop over promising guests and bringing in employees under false pretenses then act.

Unsafe vehicles, drivers forced into overtime, management fails to protect drivers.

Wage is low; don’t care about employees; overtime because they don’t have enough employees.

Vail Resorts Glassdoor reviews

“Vail Senior leadership is extremely toxic.”

Senior leadership (Kirsten, Michael, Rob) are extreme micromanagers who do not tolerate dissent or welcome alternative points of view from those below them. They demand that they make all meaningful decisions for the company – and the only people allowed in the room with them are their VPs. As a Director in the corporate office, this was incredible disempowering because it meant that I had no real ownership. Vail describes itself as “the greatest leadership company on earth” – this is laughable. There is no empowerment to make decisions, no respect for work life balance (at one point the CMO literally asked if we could stop taking Thanksgiving as a company holiday, regularly demands people work on Christmas / New Years, etc.), and effectively zero career progression opportunities at the Director level and above unless your only focus is on pleasing those above you. I really, really wanted to like this company. I loved my co-workers. It broke my heart to see it so thoroughly ruined by senior leadership. There is a reason there is SUPER high turnover (which has been the case for years, by the way). When I joined, the average tenure of my coworkers was less than a year. When I left several years later, the average tenure of my coworkers was less than a year. People come here thinking it will be great (who doesn’t want to work in the ski industry?), realize the reality of the situation, and then leave. I ignored the Glassdoor reviews when I took my job there and I regret doing so.

Advice to Management

Honestly, with Kirsten about to become the new CEO, I would not recommend anyone work at Vail’s corporate office. She surrounds herself with people who reinforce her own viewpoints and systematically weeds out anyone who disagrees with her. She talks in public about the importance of sustainability and then literally hours later, in private meetings, creates crushing workloads for the teams under her – I have seen this happen on many, many occasions. These are hallmarks of terrible leadership and a toxic workplace culture.

Vail Resorts Glassdoor review

What Vail Resorts employees are saying about Vail

Absolute unfair pay, no holidays, no support from management, no benefits unless employee is full time which is very rare.

No work/life balance, they don’t listen to local resort or community feedback, no consideration for local cultures & values, super corporate, no heart. Morale is terrible. Staff have no sense of ownership of their roles or the company. It feels like working for a faceless corporate overlord when skiing is supposed to be about fun. The company is hated by the local community. I was embarrassed to tell people I worked for them.

Really low pay considering how expensive food is in Vail. You will be exposed to the sun pretty much all day in most work areas so you have to bring your own sun screen. A few crappy management members will try to get you to come in on your days off for extra training or work, and will treat you poorly if you won’t, effectively mandatory overtime despite policies that state otherwise. Sick days are highly discouraged but everyone gets sick because they live in dorm-like conditions. Most of your coworkers will probably be nomad potheads with no goals in life (hence the stricter management protocols).

No room to grow in the company, no pay raise in 5 years, and new manager every season. The communication between different departments is nonexistent.

No work/life balance, unrealistic expectations and forced office fun; little to no diversity.

Horrible management, no work/life balance, no loyalty, horrendous pay.

Vail Reviews at Glassdoor.com

Is Vail still not Woke enough? “Vail Resorts Announces Angela Korch as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer”

“We are pleased to welcome Angela back to Vail Resorts as our new CFO. Angela is a strong leader with deep experience in our industry, a passion for our sport, and a long history with our company.”

Chief Executive Officer Kirsten Lynch

The previous CFO – a male called Michael Barkin – has been given the boot. Woke Vail is at it’s best.

“Vail Resorts is an equal opportunity employer“

Vail Resorts is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status or any other status protected by applicable law.

https://jobs.vailresortscareers.com/

More to the story: 5 of the 6 ski areas Vail Resorts owns are now run by women. Is it Woke enough?

“Equal opportunity employer“?

So the employment of the above candidate has nothing to do with their sex? Yeah, right.

“Vail Resorts’ 1st Qtr 2023 Results | Made $137 Million Loss, Total Epic Pass Sales Down 12% on Last Season”

Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) today reported results for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 ended October 31, 2022, provided season pass sales results, reaffirmed its guidance for Resort Reported EBITDA for fiscal 2023, provided additional detail on its calendar year 2023 capital plan and declared a dividend payable in January 2023.

Vail Resorts sold 2.3 million Epic Pass products for the 2022/23 season, which is down by 12% over last year.

Source: VailResorts

“Not worth the lift ticket prices”

Rude personnel, extremely strict rules… inconsistent feedback from people working here regarding the resort rules.

Not worth the lift ticket prices and f**k vail resorts altogether

This place is an absolute nightmare! Do not come here unless you want to wait in line for a shuttle for over an hour minimum and wait to park your car for an hour as well. Just parking your car will make you wanna leave it’s so chaotic. Have fun looking at the backside when you arrive, there’s fresh powder everywhere, however they won’t open it and force feed everyone into lines once you hit the front side. It’s honestly the worst resort I’ve ever been to. Just a giant trap to take your money away from you. Oh and when it’s time to leave be prepared to wait in another hour line to get back to your car and then another hour to leave. Avoid at all costs

2 hours to download from village to parking lot. 100+ people line built up from 3:30 to 4 waiting on first bus. Supply trucks were dangerously pulling in and out through the queue of people. Cutting left and right with no direction. Total mess.

No lights in the pitch black parking lot at 6 pm to top it off. This resort needs a total overhaul on customer service and parking functionality. Frankly unacceptable from an upper level management perspective. They have the $$ to do it right.

Don’t come here unless you stay on site. 4x Epic Pass holder. Heavenly and Kirkwood are visitor friendly.

After paying for very EXPENSIVE ticket during Christmas, we were informed by staff that the mountain is closed for the day due to safety reason and extreme weather, after only less than 2 hours of total time spent at the resort. When asking about partial refund or credit, nothing was offered and staff told us that “this situation happens frequently at the resort”.

Source: Google reviews

“They tweet the mountain is 100% open.. BS”

36″ fresh snow and they tweet the mountain is 100% open. On arrival, nothing could be further from the truth. One gondola open to access the mountain and a two hour wait. Only two lifts open at mid.mountain. Meanwhile, exasperated punters filling the Vail Resorts coffers buying food and drink in the village while they wait. Cynical BS by Northstar/Vail. Cash cow in the short term, but these people will not return & they will tell others. Terrible experience.

OP via Google reviews

“Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing”

Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing. If you come on a Saturday-Sunday at least, that is all you will do. 2+ hour bumper to bumper traffic delay over 8 miles backed up from the resort on 1/21 (all entirely resort traffic) – they sell WAY more lift tickets and passes than people they can fit on the mountain or their infrastructure will allow. This was with an original departure time that should have had us to the parking lot over a half hour before opening. And good luck getting any customer service for all your wasted efforts and money – if they already have your money via Epic Pass or prepaid lift ticket, they couldn’t care less what experience you have from there. Many Tahoe resorts suffer capacity issues, but nowhere to the extremes of Northstar. If you do get in (we gave up today at least after 4 hours of trying) the skiing itself is average at best – better snow and better runs elsewhere.

Tyler Knox via Google reviews

“Vail resorts & specifically Northstar are horrible”

Vail resorts & specifically Northstar are horrible! We came up to ski for the day. We are family of 4 & have a 14 year old disabled son & a 17 year old snowboarder. The plan was that I would ski with the 17 year old & my husband would hang back with our disabled son. When we arrived to the resort my special needs son would not let me out of his site. My husband & I decided to switch places. He was going to ski with our older son & I was going to hang back. So as my husband was getting on the gondola they confiscated the past because his picture did not match. We had no idea that the passes were non-transferable. We figured we had two skiers and two passes. It is written in the smallest possible letters on the back of the card which why would you even think to look there? When we explained our situation to the resort they were not only rude but had zero compassion for our situation. We were treated awfully!!! I will stick with the small non corporate ski resorts where they tend to treat people with respect & don’t belittle them, especially during a difficult situation.

Carmen Petti via Onthesnow.com

From the team: Yep, the whole Vail’s idea with “epic pass” is to sell as many passes as possible and cancel/revoke/suspend/etc as many passes as possible as well. The Vail & Northstar gestapo is making sure that stupid rule is enforced so their CEO gets her $6M+ bonus.