ski instructor

front desk agent

forklift operator

cook

reservations manager

Vail Resorts

Lift Operations: It is what it is. Seasonal jobs rely on a transient, flexible pool of workers; people who tend to be young, healthy, adventurous, inexperienced, a little bit desperate, or for some reason willing to settle for less. These jobs tend to be low wage, and come with few benefits. Don't expect any healthcare.

...Which isn't great, anywhere. But a few months of working for Vail Resorts brought some greater issues into light. Basically, there were two kinds of people populating the place where I worked last winter: You had the ultra-rich, and the people in service to them. The economic divide between the rich and the poor is strikingly apparent in Park City, Utah. There is nothing in between, and the chasm is very deep.

Trouble is, the owners of the retail stores, the hotels, the ski resorts, and all the other corporate businesses that fill this rich person's playground don't want to pay their essential workers a penny more than they're required to pay by law. So, they don't. At the same time, the land owners in Park City that want to develop houses and condos aren't at ALL interested in building affordable rentals for minimum wage/temporary workers. And why would they, when they can take that same land and build a subdivision of multi-million dollar mansions and condos, to lure in wealthy homeowners and vacationers?

So as you can imagine, there's a pretty big dilemma unfolding: The staff who run the ski resorts and keep them safe, functional, and enjoyable for resort guests literally cannot afford to live in the areas where the resorts are located. Vail was hurting so badly for "bodies" this winter that we couldn't even open all of the lifts until halfway through the season, not because there wasn't enough snow but because there simply wasn't enough manpower. Apparently, ten people who wanted to work for Vail as lift operators had to decline their job offers, because they just couldn't find anywhere to live in the end. Vail doesn't provide employee housing in Park City, the city itself has no affordable housing, and Vail refuses to pay essential workers enough to meet the high cost of living for the area. The people who managed to work things out were simply lucky or well-connected, but because of the situation *in general,* they still had to deal with being on an understaffed skeleton crew for the whole season. Even the middle-aged, experienced lift operations managers made a pittance, of $15-$16 an hour - hardly enough to get by in a mountain resort town that prices itself for Hollywood stars and billionaires. According to lower-level management, things have been getting steadily worse for years, and none of them have the power to change things or advocate for themselves.

Being a lift operator is fun, easy, and the ski pass is a dream come true for young people who might otherwise never be able to afford to hit the slopes. Seasonal labor is a magnet for young, adventurous people who are able to settle for less, live creatively, and deal with less economic stability. But WORK IS WORK, and just because the staff is young and a job has a few incidental perks doesn't mean employers can and should get away with not paying them enough to survive.

Unrestrained greed and singleminded self-interest is absolutely devastating America's working class and economy, and Vail Resorts is a fully aware participant. Know what your time is worth, people. Every second you spend working for somebody else is a second of your life that you could have spent living for yourself, doing literally anything else. That's worth a lot. And if you give months of your life to somebody else and you can't even afford to survive as a result of your labor, it's not enough. Your life has value.

Essential labor keeps the WORLD moving. The easiest, simplest job in the world should still afford whoever holds it the ability to survive.

I'm just giving you the forward warning right now!
You spend a week in training to learn the Vail computer system but take 100% of the calls, yet type up refund requests all day just to push work off on to another person. So in other words the customer never gets helped and they keep calling in with IT problem or want their money back. Its a sense of incompetence for employees, which indicates the 1st week in training was not taught correct because there just is not a drop of motivation, any goals or values being taught. 
Vail Resorts Corporation in Broomfield Colorado starts every customer service rep. out at $12.00 an hour (=$1920.00 a month without taxes being taken) to get in the door to listen to the phones ring off the hook all day listening to upset customers about how they are also dis-satisfied. I'm just setting an example that my rent is $1600.00 a month. (Which is cheap for average Googled Colorado rent price). General bills $300.00, So based on to only pay rent and typical phone and Excel bill = $1900.00. Which makes the free Epic pass given to you feel like a privilege but its just your plastic card with your picture on it that clocks you in/out. In other words, The hourly wage does not include correct Colorado Standard Cost of Living prices. They do not even pay for the rental for skis or lessons, let alone give you a bonus for gas money to get up the mountain. The typical person has a car payment, car insurance and some sort of established life that includes eating and using clothes. The majority of the people that do work work there are in their 20s-30s, which I can assume they want weekends off so they give the normal weekday shift. The building looks great from the outside, but simply is not big enough to have satisfied employees be comfortable in a working space or atmosphere because I didn't feel the stability. All I did was feel the tension of the long time managers attitude and insecurity because there is no team work or communication.
Morning shift people share cubicles with late shift and weekend employees because they do not have enough working equipment. 
Holidays are not paid, which are required to work. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day are black out days, which means all the customers that bought the wrong pass can not ski on these days so they people to take calls on all holidays. The leads are non-communicative and not personable and made it feel uncomfortable to ask for help. And from there on up it only got worse. I registered for a class that was work related and the date got denied by the manager to go because there is not enough people to work.This is not a difficult job if you can learn the computer system and get through training. I can honestly say that the corporation is selfish and does not care about employees. That is crystal clear that the owner is not kept in the loop about truthful things going on. And if he does that is not good. I do not see change anytime soon which is un-fortunate. Its who you know, Not what you know to work here. 
They forgot to tell you that if you get hired on full time, You must 30 days for high priced benefits that I didn't care to stay to find out. 
 Helly Hanson offers 60% off to employees, but once again I couldn't get past paying my basic needs to be able to afford a new winter coat.

I would suggest you avoid working for Vail Resorts along with Vail Sports at The Ritz Carlton because both the company and the management team who I worked for was terrible.  The management team would openly discriminate against me for having a disability and I was the only girl amongst boys and the guys were sexist and made sexist jokes in front of me and they openly mocked me every day for every move I made. I was laughed at for how I spoke. They pointed out how excited I would get about going home when that is just how I am and they made fun of me for I am.  I thought that was really strange and that shouldn't be how a management team acts. 

My manager was really disrespectful and took advantage of the fact I couldn't talk because of my disability and it made me concerned for my overall well being and my safety in the workplace. My manager was good about telling me about information and about company policies while he was training me but he lacked patience during training and during a regular shift and would oftentimes raise his voice at me and would get really impatient with me and that is what I needed the most. That is what is important for being a good manager is actually meaning what you say instead of giving people mixed messages. There was something off about him.  It was about the job and instead, he wouldn't let me forget that he didn't like me. Instead, he would act like I was saying more than I should when actually what I was saying was just as important as the guys. I didn't like his double standards just because I had a disability. Something needs to be done about him and his behavior towards his employees. How he felt about me wasn't important and he should have communicated better about other things that were job-related. He was a poor manager for not making me feel welcome. He let me do all the work for him and most of the time he was taking his anger out on me when it wasn't even my problem. It was his. 

He didn't offer what I needed so I left and he thought he was helping me by transferring me to a different store but if he would have listened to me and not ignored me and would have taken me a bit more seriously then he would have known that what he did actually wasn't helpful at all and he was wasting his time. I told him what I was going to do and instead, he did that. He didn't even care and he was eager to have me leave the store and he was adamant about making me look bad because I was leaving and he thought that I didn't matter to him so he decided to hurt me. My manager would tell me that I can tell him anything and when he spoke about an issue he would just assume things and not really listen and he would laugh at me and would act like what I said wasn't important and would laugh at what I was saying. So that was an example of how he gave me mixed messages.

The management team only cared about themselves and didn't understand what was going on with me and openly told me they didn't care about me to get to know me and how I was and they were far from professional because they didn't leave their personal feelings about me at the door. Instead, they would take it out on me during the workday. My manager started the name-calling and socially isolated me on purpose and judged how I did my work and would give me dirty looks and would micromanage me. I don't know what his problem was but that guy needed to get his priorities straight. Especially with his anger problem and he would laugh if he scared me and he liked the idea that he made it a hostile work environment.

When I first began working for Vail it seemed like a great company with great goals and as time went on I quickly saw all of the negative things I had heard were true.

Whoever does the hiring does a horrible job. Basically working with my fellow employees is like working at a frat house. All everyone does is party, do drugs, and came here for the ski/snowboard benefits so they don't take their job seriously. Every day people call in "sick", people go home early, and there's no responsibility or accountability. It's almost as if Vail caters to their poor work ethic making it easy for them to be slackers. Management doesn't want to give their employees any responsibility or more than they can "handle" so things that should be part of their job description are ignored and pushed on to the few responsible people at work.

The benefits are great, but because Vail makes it so easy for people to take advantage of their benefits there doesn't seem to be an incentive to earn them or use them responsibly. It's sad that people can't get benefits and do their job, but that's the reality we live in so I believe there should be some sort of earn and gain within the company to ensure people are here to not only play, but work.

One positive is that because I am a hard worker and I am literally the only one in my new staff that has never called in "sick", never shown up late, or never requested a holiday off I did get promoted and with that came a raise. It is definitely nice to be recognized for working hard and earning a deserved promotion.

Another negative is Employee housing. I would never live in Sunrise Employee Housing again.

My boyfriend & I are paying close to 400$ a month to clean up after our suite mates (who share our kitchen & bathroom). They leave food out for days, never wash their dishes, leave crumbs and spills all over the counters, and everything we touch (handles of microwave, fridge, sink knobs, etc) are coated in grease. We've had to use our sink in our personal room to wash our dishes because the big sink in the kitchen is always too full of dirty dishes and food. We've also never used the dishwasher, because they have taken it over as a dirty dish storage area. They also don't flush the toilet and leave it very dirty.. if you know what I mean.

I've made multiple reports, taken photos, talked to three different people in the housing department and every time they pretend they are going to do something and nothing changes. We've called the cops because they party so loud, yell, scream, play music loud at 3am, etc. and all housing has done is offer to change our apartment. So instead of them being punished they wanted to allow them to stay and make a mess of the apartment and let those who are following rules and upkeep move.

The price is way to high to be living in a college dorm room type of situation cleaning up after people and dealing with parties when there is no punishment. The rules clearly state you'll be removed if you don't obey certain guide lines and it's a total joke. I will never live here again and I don't suggest it, especially if you have early work hours and want decent sleep.

I moved to the mountains for a fun season, of skiing. Although, I am happy I was able to spend my days skiing and teaching, I will not be  working for this company again. Vail Resorts is does not care about their employees at all, they care only about money!
1. employee housing is far away from the mountain and very run down. The apartments are also over-packed and not cheaper than most apartments around the area. I lived in a four bedroom 2 bath apartment with 5 random girls and my room was tinier than any dorm I had in college for me and my roommate. 
2. They pay employees next to nothing. You make around $12 an hour. Let me tell you what a private lesson costs for the client: $1,250 and the ski instructor makes about $120 on the day, if lucky. If the client does not tip, the employee would be better off having a class of kids than the private lesson. Even though that lesson is more profitable for the resort.  The resort makes so much off of these clients and off of their employees, but they pay next to nothing. It is unfair! 
4. They treat their foreign seasonal workers the worst. These employees rarely get private lessons, unless the clients are Spanish speakers. The foreign workers usually get the customers that do not tip. The staff and supervisors I worked with did not treat these employees with respect, they acted above these workers. 
3. They never listen to complaints employees bring to their attention. Example 1: gas leak in a ski school area, the management did not listen to employees about this until two fainted. Example 2: sewage leak in the employee locker room, the management never listen to complaints and never fixed the issue and employees had to suffer with the smell all season.
4. Supervisors do not care if you have mental illness issues or have been over worked. I watched a supervisor yell, at a crying employee that had worked 15 days straight, to "tough it out" "stop complaining, everyone is working hard"
5. Management does not inform employees of any news until it is too late. With Corona Virus the management would send emails at midnight about what changes would be coming for the morning! This gave employees barely any chance to adapt to the changes before the next day of work. Example: They closed all cafeterias, and I found out in the morning, my private client and i were suppose to eat out the next day. We had not planned to bring lunch with us and this adjustment took us by surprise and was unfair to both the client and myself. 
6. They made the decision to close the mountain in an email to everyone at 5:30pm due to Corona Virus. 7 days later all employees were kicked out of their housing. Unfair and unjust treatment of employees. There was no heads up, or even talk about closing before that sudden email. They should have warned us it was a possibility. 
If you are thinking of working for Vail I suggest you look elsewhere. There are many mountains that Vail Resorts does not own that would be more fun and give you a better experience!

During a typical work day, one of my biggest tasks was checking in on my staff and assessing progress on various projects. We would meet first thing at the beginning of the shift to discuss our priorities (safety/food safety/cleanliness/customer service approach etc.) for the day/week, then meet again in the middle of the day/week to check progress, and once at the end of the week to discuss goal setting for the next day/week. I'd meet with all a.m. team members every morning then smaller groups of my staff in the middle of the week to troubleshoot any issues and update information discussed at the morning staff meeting to those team members whos shift started throughout the day. 

In such a fast paced busy environment. ...
Always lead by example. ...
Be decisive. A reality for any leader is that many people need decisions from YOU, and if you can't make them quickly everyone is going to suffer. ...
Embrace change. ...
Be inspirational. ...
Be empathetic. ...
Control your emotions. ...
Be persuasive. ...
Seek out advice. ...
Accept your mistakes. ...
Every passing minute is another chance to learn something new.

Management and I work closely together on a daily basis, just like any relationship if you want to make it work, Communication is key. Set expectations. ...
Set Goals. ...
Follow up. ... 
Recognize Success and A Job Well Done in Public/ALWAYS Discipline in Private. ...  
My experience at my previous place of employment with management, I was given the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

I don't think I would have worked for the same company for over 25 years if I didn't feel included, encouraged, involved in some of the decision making and having the liberty to make certain changes in my department that boosted employee efficiency and morale. During my employment there I started off as a teenager that all I wanted to do was learn how to snowboard felt like a 2-week vacation turned into a 25+ year vacation ended up working in the Corporate HR/Training & Development departments, Food & Beverage Management Department. Enjoyed GREAT benefits, lived in employee housing for a while, company-wide holiday gatherings and events. Personally, they helped me gave me the experience, education opportunity to grow into the professional I am now and I am very appreciative of that! 

Honestly, the hardest part of the job was sometimes the hours worked. Depending on the time of the season, there was just no staff but the jobs had to get done and it was crucial that our Customers had a GREAT experience!  We all made sure we were there 1000% and worked hard with a smile on our faces to ensure we accomplished this goal!

Working with people!

People of all types and of all parts of the world, I have a passion for people and try to make sure that anyone that crosses my path has an enjoyable positive experience!

Worked as a BOH employee at the busiest restaurant on a small ski resort in WA state. I was given a few warnings or indications that my season working at Stevens Pass for Vail resorts was not going to go well. First indication of impending doom: After traveling across the country to company-supplied housing, we found the company's HR manager had given us the wrong key for our apartment.We had to wait hours in the cold for the correct key. No apology was issued for their mistake. Second indication of it being a poor-quality company to work for: I was initially hired as an cook level 2, but was being paid for cook level 1. Upon arrival my boss communicated to me that I was actually expected to work as an cook level 3.I was more than able to fulfill the role required, but I wanted additional compensation with the additional responsibility. I communicated my pay discrepancy and it was corrected, back pay included, after some hassle and emotional backlash from my sous chef. Third indication: They didn't have enough staff to run all of their dining operations. The mountain relied primarily on over-worked, poorly trained J1s from South America who were stretched very thin and housed in a KOA. The J1s regularly voiced their complaints with the housing. Fourth indication that working for Vail at Stevens Pass was a huge mistake: As a BOH employee I was informed that I would be tipped-out from the Front-of-house staff.  There were no tips on any of the cooks' pay checks until I reported the lack of wages to Corporate head quarters. I brought-up the BOH tip-out issue with my direct management multiple times with no resolution being met. I had to escalate my case to Vail employee's 'epic' online complaint directory. The BOH employees had not been receiving tips from FOH staff for MONTHS. I wonder if any tips from the tip-pool would have ever made it to the BOH if I had not contacted corporate. IF YOU WORK FOR VAIL KEEP TRACK OF HOURS AND COMMUNICATE WITH COWORKERS ABOUT TIP-POOLS AND TIP-OUTS! PS-Be prepared to be in the dish pit, even if it's not in your position's job description.

The sad thing is I truly loved the work I did. I worked there for 4 seasons and was fired for going 2 hours over my sick time. I was well liked by my co workers.I received a number of awards for customer service. I often came in early and stayed late. I would volunteer to cover shifts. When I was off the clock I would take calls from my coworkers for trouble shooting help and support. I answered those calls happily because I cared about what my guests and co workers. I was demoted a year into my job and was expected to carry the responsibility on my shoulders while they hired a replacement. That happened twice. When I was seriously ill I was written up and had my job threatened. Then asked to work extra hours while trying to recover from pneumonia. This company may be great but my management was absolutely horrible. Managers are on the work hard play hard schedule. That means they can show up whenever and leave whenever. My boss was gone the majority of the summer. When he was there he created tension and demoralized our crew for not getting enough done. If your not a manager it a work hard work hard schedule. In 3 years I've seen my whole crew of 13 people turn over 3 times. That is astonishing to me. I really loved the work I did there but hated the way management marginalized my accomplimemts and efforts. Management would say hurtful and very insulting things, if you voiced a concern there would be retaliation. That same management has been taken to hr and written up on more than one occasion. Yet still is allowed to manage people. I was written up twice in 4 seasons. Both right after being out sick with drs notes.
Overall I left Vail resort's feeling very used and unappreciated. Before I started working there I would ski 50 to 60 days a year. I haven't even put my boots on in the last 2 years. I'm sure other departments are different. Unfortunately I was not in one of those departments.  It has been a truly demoralising "experience of a lifetime." To say the least.

As an executive director I was responsible for seven departments, and during the ski season my departments would have about 800 to 850 employees. 
My usual day consisted of meetings with resort employees, the managers that reported to me. I would often meet with our partners in the lodging community. I would also meeting with people from the chamber of commerce. Anytime the chamber had a VIP coming in to ski at our resort, the chamber would see me to arrange tickets for the visitors and sometimes they would request one of our Mountain Host give them a tour of our mountain. 
Because the teams that I was responsible for were all over the  mountain. I would usually start with the parking lot crew, then to the host department. From their it was to the ticket department, I always checked in there, because the ticket agents are usually the guest's for experience with a resort employee. It was important that the guest were getting a friendly greeting, as well as a thank you. It was also important that the ticket lines were moving alone as quickly as possible. The Ticket Checkers were normally my next stop, I wanted to make sure the checkers interaction with the guest was positive.
After my morning rounds I would return to my office and either attend any schedule meetings or I would start working on one my many projects. As an example I would begin building different pricing models to project how much revenue would be generated next season by different pricing structures.
I loved working with the resort's team members and meeting the guest that visited the resort. It was an especially rewarding experience when I was able to solve one of our guest problems. Usually by the time they got to me they were worried and frustrated, my goal was to make them a happy guest, which in 99.99%  of the time I was able to do.
The list of my departments don't seem to go together.
Because I had success at taking poor performing departments and quickly turning them around, anytime the resort had a poor performing department, I was asked to take responsibility for that department.

I started working at the Stevens Pass Ski Area in the Sales and Reservations department earning $8.25 an hour which at the time was $0.25 over minimum wage. During the first 5 years I fell in love with the company which at the time was New Stevens LLC. The entire company from the senior management level to the part time trainee was a cooperative effort for the most part. After 5 years of employment by New Stevens LLC the company was sold by Harbor Properties and restructured ultimately becoming Stevens Pass Mountain Resort LLC which I have been employed by for the past 5 years. 

Stevens Pass Mountain Resort is the current company operating the Stevens Pass Ski Area and my review is of my current outlook on the corporation in the hopes of providing accurate, non-biased informative review. 

I've worked will literally thousands of different staff members over the seasons in my various roles and to be completely honest the staff at Stevens Pass has always been generally an amazing group of people to work with. All the staff members who have worked at this company for over 5 years are all astoundingly dedicated and supportive coworkers of which I am honestly continually impressed by on a regular basis. My opinion of the current Senior Management team however is very different and while I do believe each employee including senior/executive staff do their very best and are honestly good well intention-ed people. I also feel they mismanage the corporations assets with multiple failed initiatives which in turn have an adverse effect on a large portion of our customers/guests/and staff. 

The current climate of this corporations culture very much feels like an "us against them" on multiple levels where both the staff and the customers no longer trust the company or the people "running" it.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Ski instructor 7 salaries reported	$23.14 per hour
Front desk agent 6 salaries reported	$20.33 per hour
Forklift operator 9 salaries reported	$20.11 per hour
Cook 5 salaries reported	$21.62 per hour
Reservations manager 11 salaries reported	$53,000 per year

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