Don't Send Your Kids Here! - Assistant Manager Vail Resorts Employee Review

1.0
Aug 6, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free Ski Pass, beautiful location, 40% off retail.

Cons

They tell kids they have a place in housing, then just before arriving, they suddenly don't. This whole county is a ski resort and I'm a long-time local, if you're not in housing before the ski season starts, you probably won't be. They pretend like they don't have enough parking passes for their half-empty employee parking then regularly put boots on up to three tires. At $150 each to remove they're making a lot of money off of these kids. They promise full-time hours, but once the Christmas rush is over people's hours can drop down to 10 hours a week. As a manager this was frustrating, there were so many things we could've gotten done during slow times to get ready for the spring rush, but they wouldn't let us keep ourselves staffed. The job was fun and I liked my coworkers, but the way upper management treated employees as extendible was an emotionally heavy thing to live with. I felt I had few resources as assistant manager (and I could tell our general manager felt the same) to protect my employees from the corporation we worked for. I will forage in the woods before I work for them again.

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
Jun 30, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing company to work for! Appreciate the environment, the benefits.

Cons

Seasonal position which can make benefits a challenge.

2.0
May 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Most people are smart, passionate, and enjoyable to work with and be around. - Fairly frequent opportunities for development and advancement through the internal job board. - Nice perks if you're into skiing or riding.

Cons

- There's an unspoken expectation to regularly work significantly more hours because the majority of employees are very passionate about the ski and ride industry, which isn't great for work life balance. There's not much down time either; you're either hustling in season or hustling to prepare for the next season. - Climate change poses a significant threat to the future of the company. The season pass model mitigates some of the impacts, but not as much as senior leadership asserts. And, since bonuses are tied to company results, you can end up working super hard all year and still end up getting half of your bonus target due to uncontrollable weather conditions. - The culture has taken a serious hit since enterprise transformation work began. Lots of people are constantly stressed out and the atmosphere in the office is depressing. - Most of the time, it feels like senior leadership makes decisions in a vacuum without consulting any of the people that would be responsible for the downstream work associated with the decision. For example, I've seen senior leaders decide on a savings target multiple times without consulting the experts, who then have to scramble to figure out how to make it work. It creates chaos and negatively impacts morale. - This organization has a wordsmithing problem. I've never worked at a company that spends such an inordinate amount of time on the framing of a message compared to the actual substance of the message.

4
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