At Stevens Pass, epic lines, not-so-epic times amid staff shortage

Skiers, snowboarders and employees blame owner Vail Resorts for a “dysfunctional” season. Management cites industry-wide issues.

Customers are demanding better treatment of resort employees and refunds of their season passes. An online petition, accusing the company of deceiving consumers in the name of profit, garnered about 20,000 signatures in just a few days this week. And since Christmas Day, at least a dozen people have filed consumer complaints against the resort with the state Office of the Attorney General.

Herald.net

Vail Resorts Long Term Debt increased 13.26%

  • Vail Resorts long term debt for the quarter ending October 31, 2021 was $2.705B, a 13.26% increase year-over-year.
  • Vail Resorts long term debt for 2021 was $2.736B, a 14.62% increase from 2020.
  • Vail Resorts long term debt for 2020 was $2.387B, a 56.25% increase from 2019.
  • Vail Resorts long term debt for 2019 was $1.528B, a 23.78% increase from 2018.

Source: Macrotrends

Park City ski patrol union, Vail Resorts fail to reach wage agreement in 47th bargaining session since 2020

Ski patrollers — who train as first responders to provide on-mountain medical care and mitigate avalanche danger with explosives and other means — are still starting at $13.25 per hour, making rookie patrollers the lowest paid employees at Park City resort. Second year patrollers start at $14.50 per hour.

The Salt Lake City Tribune

Vail Resorts company reviews – Part-V

“Poor training. Poor pay.”

Everything is a cons! Senior Manager continually complains and backstabs the lower management, Condescending at best! Director always in the office on Teams meetings, never acknowledged one newer employee. Always tells you how busy they are, Absent of any empathy or culture. Bad company to work for.

Store Manager (Former Employee) – Park City, UT (via Indeed)

“Terrible company.”

Vail resorts is a horrible company to devote your creative outlet and energy to. No professional developmental assistance. Below average pay regardless of experience and production. No structure in management. Corporate entity notorious for the above and more. Ask anyone who’s ever worked for them and moved on.

Executive Chef (Former Employee) – Keystone, CO (via Indeed)

“Vail is a Horrible company.”

I don’t have much energy to write about this company because they have pretty much drained all of my will to live. I think about putting a 9mm in my head because this billion dollar company that can afford to pay people living wages (which in north metro colorado is about 19-20 dollars an hour) chooses to just not pay us what they should and hire people for 11 months out of the year calling them “seasonal” so they don’t have to give normal or even decent benefits. I had thanksgiving off but didn’t get paid, so now I have to work overtime just to get my “normal” pay which is very low to begin with, nowhere near the 19-20 dollars an hour that it should be. DO NOT WORK HERE, THEY DO NOT GIVE A F#$@ ABOUT ANYONE.

CSS/TA Coordinator (Current Employee) – Broomfield, CO (via Indeed)

“Suicide rate is extremely high for a reason.”

You will regret working for this company, they are cheap and don’t take care of employees at all. Do better, it’s not that hard you are a multi million $$company

Lift operator-attendant (Current Employee) – Breckenridge, CO (via Indeed)

“Maybe the worst company I have ever worked.”

The pay doesn’t even come close to covering the cost of living, direct management and upper management are completely untrustworthy, chronically understaffed and at the same time constantly reminding staff they’re replaceable, probably the worst company I have ever worked for.

Instructor (Former Employee) – Breckenridge, CO (via Indeed)

“A season pass.”

Cold early mornings long hours lots of responsibility and hardly any payment. Told I would get on the job training, never happened. Was Forced to quit. Exhausting work

Lift Electrician (Former Employee) – Park City, UT (via Indeed)

“A million dollar corporation that doesn’t care about its workers.”

Don’t know at all where to begin. I guess, be a ski instructor if you’re a 19 year old kid with complete financial backing from your parents and you’re on a gap year? Otherwise this job is worthless. Resorts are run by CEO’s in offices who have no clue the amount of work it takes to operate a ski resort / ski school on a daily basis. You’re expected to show up early, stay late (which you will not be paid for) , clock out for lunch. Vail is basically looking for bodies to fill roles and pay them minimum wage. Super corporate. They don’t care about you because they know they’ll find the next kid who wants to be a ski instructor in no time. Strongly urge you to work for a smaller, family owned and operated ski resort. They will care about you, maybe even know your name. Don’t work for Vail. Selling your soul to a money hungry corporation in turn for a ski pass.

Snowboard Instructor (Former Employee) – Breckenridge, CO (via Indeed)

“Terrible.”

The people you work with on a day to day basis are normally great. Lack of experienced middle management leads to a lot of power trips and a lack of support. Upper management has been there so long they are clueless and unwilling to change. Do yourself a favor and apply to a different company. Terrible management and lack of culture that the company promotes.

Customer Service Representative (Former Employee) – Keystone, CO (via Indeed)

Vail Resorts: 9 Things Bad Companies Say To Their Employees – Toxic Workplace Signs

  • We work hard play harder
  • We are a family
  • We’ll promote you later
  • You’re replaceable
  • We wear lots of hats
  • You’re gonna be wearing multiple hats
  • We are in startup mode
  • We only hire rockstars
  • We’re always hiring
  • We need someone who can hit the ground running
  • We have foosball
  • If you need help

Source: A Life After Layoff

Vail Resorts company reviews – Part-IV

“Terrible and Misled.”

Underpay, Complete incompetency, perverse incentives, fake “leadership” culture, refuses to learn from an astronomical turnover rate.

Advice to Management:

Hire better people and incentivize them to stay. Try to avoid a complete reorg and layoff EVERY year.

Marketing Manager in South Lake Tahoe, CA (via Glassdoor)

“It’s bot a career — it’s a job.”

The company preaches core values that are not actually applied within the company. We talk about innovation but nobody wants to hear about changing anything and there are many bullies and blowhards that work for this company.

Advice to Management:

Treat your frontline people with respect. Don’t just play lip service and put things out in the media of you being such a great employer when you have massive turnover constantly. You don’t listen to the underlings in this company and allow it to drive any sort of change.

Sales Manager in Breckenridge, CO (via Glassdoor)

“Corporate Office.”

Don’t pay well. Don’t invest in processes. Stuck in the past. Expect you to sacrifice your life for the company.

Assistant Buyer in Broomfield, CO (via Glassdoor)

“Run. Run far away.”

This was without question the worst, most dysfunctional, clueless organization I’ve ever worked for. I can’t speak for other departments, but the Strategic Alliance department was an utter disaster. Poor leadership, poor teamwork and a VERY cancerous work environment. I cannot urge whoever reads this to stay far away from this role.

Advice to Management:

You need a sales team and an activation team. Everything needs to be rethought and overhauled. It’s embarrassing.

Strategic Partnerships Manager in Broomfield, CO (via Glassdoor)

“Burger Flipper.”

No innovation, no autonomy, no future. if you like doing the smallest code change possible then sitting on your hands for the next 3 sprints, then you’ll love this place. if you like being on monthly deployment calls with 50 other people doing nothing for 4 hrs, you’ll love this place.

Advice to Management:

Get rid of Chris S and Sue L. Empower development team to make improvements. kill all the useless meetings (hint, all of them). Actually listen to your employees when they make suggestions instead of talking to everyone like they are 3rd graders.

Software Development Engineer (via Glassdoor)

Vail think they are “one of “America’s Best Employers for Women”.

As per Vail’s post at Glassdoor

Are these imbeciles aware that they are not even mentioned in the list (300 companies) at all, not just in “Travel & Leisure” section.

In reality: Vail not even mentioned

Or were they taking about the “worst employers”?

Source: Glassdoor

Vail Resorts company reviews – Part-III

“Narcissism, Negativity, and Micromanagement.”

Micromanagement is horrible here, leads are constantly berating agents and embarrassing them. Not offering any real help or training when asked. Unnecessary daily morning meetings where the leads tell us how horrible we all are and never have anything positive to say or solutions to offer, then telling us to “crush it” and “have a great day” like the past 15 minutes of negativity is motivation for us to do well. Don’t expect your lead to care about you, your situation, or anything that’s outside of being on the phones (I have comforted many agents crying about how stressed they are and getting no response when they reach out to their leads). Most leads have no idea how to even do their jobs, let alone ours. The customer service department is just a mess.

Advice to Management:

Take better care of who you are hiring to supervise your employees. A lot of quality, intelligent, and loyal employees jumping ship because they are tired of the constant negativity and confusion from the leads. We work hard for horrible pay and get no support or positive reinforcement for it at all. Just do better.

Customer Service Agent (via Glassdoor)

“Horrible company, incompetent managers.”

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

Advice to Management:

Fire your management

Ski Tech in Colorado Springs, CO (via Glassdoor)

“Tips are not good here.”

Everything is bad here, really I would not lie to you about this. Get a job somewhere else and just buy a pass, unless you like drunken roommates and transient people in your room. You will like being cold and broke and looking for a place to live

Cashier/Barista in Breckenridge, CO (via Glassdoor)

“If you like being overworked & underpaid, Vail Resorts is for you!”

Now Vail Resorts is just another giant heartless corporation that says all the right woke nonsense but treats their employees like garbage. If you are going to work there, work on hourly not salary, they abuse salaried employees with ridiculous demands for your personal time.

Advice to Management:

If you want employees to stay and respect you, the actions have to match the words. You built that empire off the backs of employees who never got 1 dime of equity in the company while Rob Katz, Executive Management & Rob’s New York Hedge Fund buddies got rich

Senior Business Systems Analyst in Broomfield, CO (via Glassdoor)