crew member

cook

crew leader

front desk agent

caretaker

Appalachian Mountain Club

- The company is a sinking ship (no money)
- Worst manager I have ever had
- Horrible training
- Bad attitudes
- Snitches
- NO communication
- Constant burnout
- No AC in any building

The only reason this job is tied for the worst job I've ever had and isn't definitively in last place is that I can't decide if my experience at my old job was tainted from undiagnosed depression and anxiety and therefore WAS the worst job I had or if this job is just as bad and would have felt worse if I wasn't currently on meds. Either way, this is probably the worst job I've ever had.

Definitely the worst manager/overall management I've ever had. No communication, it feels like staff is constantly undertrained, burned out, and left stranded without a way to work through issues. Management and higher-ups in the company don't appear to understand the responsibilities of staff or what would be best for them. Micromanagement from people higher in the company is CRAZY.  The pay isn't worth it. The paychecks are laughable for the amount of work we put in. The dorms are just plain bad. Literally worse than public college dorms and that is saying something. Super small, no AC anywhere on campus, bug problems, etc.

Here's the paragraph where I write about positive things. I will say staff themselves are lovely people - I've made some great friends during my time here. The location is stellar - lots of hiking and constant beauty surrounding us. As far as staff (excluding management) and the location (keep in mind its rural af) 10/10.

The job itself... 3/10.



Typical day starts at 5:30 and you must eat breakfast and be ready to work by 7. Management uses young people as pawns for the destruction of natural lands for the way to capitalize on seasonal, unreliable servants of an indentured system that causes the demise of privacy, safety, and orderly way to perceive life and cohabitate a social experiment on unknowing or knowing individuals whom are subject to being disposed of at the end of the season. The AMC is an entity in which cooperates with the CIA in means of manipulating a person so that the mind is weaponized against others instead of treating people with humanity, disparaging remarks are made so that others are outraged, and this cycle will destroy this organization because of the lack of care from upper management who deem that the problems of young people, are not the problems that they should have to deal with at this time. Always making communists. The AMC way. Making young people an asset of the US government so that they are not treated as an asset but as if they are in a set.

Appalachian Mountain Club was located in the middle of the 100 Mile Wilderness area in Maine. I lived in a wall-tent with a yurt on site that had a stove, wood stove, dining table, refrigerator, etc. The people were fantastic. I worked mostly with two other people, one of which also had a wall tent on site. The main lodge where we could shower and use internet (and cell phones) was located about a 15 minute drive up a dirt road along a beautiful lake that we could paddle board, canoe, kayak, fish, swim, etc. right out of the back door. The people who worked out of the lodge were incredible (and excellent cooks) that I consider some of my life long friends. Working outside all summer with amazing people was an absolute dream job.

Their vacation and paid holiday package is exceptional for supervisors and managers.  However, this is certainly to compensate for the extremely low wages, lack of empowerment, and a culture that is unwilling to adapt to the times and on occasion can actually be quite hostile due to inexperienced and disengaged upper management (property based management team was excellent though!).  Health benefits are on par or slightly worse than other companies.  If you enjoy the outdoor enthusiast lifestyle, AMC is great.  But if you're also looking to be empowered and have opportunities to move up in the organization, go elsewhere.  Turnover is very low in key leadership positions with most in position 10-20+ years.  Turnover in entry level management and supervisory positions is quite high due to the low pay and frustrating culture of staff being treated like widgets.

The responsibilities of a crew member involved kitchen work, facility cleaning, and camp/trail maintenance. Crew members were expected to be in the kitchen 7am every morning and help prepare/serve food to the guests, then by 9am, depending on the weekly shifts, each crew member would continue working in the kitchen to prepare meals for later in the day/week, or would be given cleaning/maintenance tasks to do on the campgrounds. Crew members were given a 3 hour break after lunch was served and were back in the kitchen around 5pm. We were typically done by 7pm once dinner had been served and the kitchen was cleaned for the following day. Crew members were provided food and lodging for free, and being located in the middle of a national park, this job felt more like a summer-long vacation that we made money off of, just with some extra required labor on the side.

Any job at the AMC is demanding, in wildly different ways. But almost all of them are physically demanding. Days vary wildly as well, but generally involve a lot of customer interaction. 
The people are consistently some of the best I've worked with, which is difficult to do with seasonal labor. 
Most of the people are very laid back, the pay is decent compared to other seasonal labor I have done, but No seasonal jobs pay enough. 
The work/life balance is perhaps the most difficult part. Any of the backcountry jobs (huts, campsites, trail crew) require anywhere from 5 to 11 days on, with anywhere from 2 to 7 days off between stints (5 and 2, 7 and 7, 11 and 2.5). With little contact with the outside world during that time (which is both one of the hardest and most enjoyable parts of the jobs).

Should be a great place to work but poor leadership prevents the club from getting to the next level. Leaders are too busy protecting their silos rather than working together for the good of the organization and ultimately the mission. The current leadership doesn't know how to pull the group together, build consensus or drive real change but more often than not goes for the quick fix like another round of rebranding (second in five years or increasing accessibility for economically challenged populations by moving from Beacon Hill to Charlestown) rather than strategically focusing on initiatives that would actually move the club forward. Leadership change needed to really move the club forward.

I’ve worked here for about 4 months now and in my time, the management has gone to trash. Schedules are changed and you will not be notified save for a small note left on a white board. There is zero communication about event planning, changes to dinner operations, and there is no encouragement/ interaction between management and employees. I love being able to live out here in the mountains but the job itself is absolutely draining. The work culture from top down is uninviting at best. Save yourself from this current kitchen nightmare and work over at camp dodge.

Imagine working at a location where the least qualified person in any given department was given a promotion into management and then 30 years of promotion and corruption was allowed to take its course. This is the AMC in a brief summary. The true hearts are the common working class whose good ideas are stolen by incompetent managers and the bad ideas and poorly executed good ideas are theirs to carry. All while the HR department defends the incompetence and ignores any sort of logic. If you care about nature it would be best to avoid this outfit.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Helping people plan their time outdoors.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Dealing with leadership. The focus was always money even though we were a non profit. Poor people can't afford to stay because their rates are too high. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Uptight and conservative which is not what you'd expect from a conservation organization. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day was so busy that you didn't use the bathroom all day.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Crew member 36 salaries reported	$15.71 per hour
Cook 18 salaries reported	$16.60 per hour
Crew leader 20 salaries reported	$21.45 per hour
Front desk agent 7 salaries reported	$14.25 per hour
Caretaker 11 salaries reported	$14.76 per hour

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