Terrible company to work for - Lead Lift Operator Vail Resorts Employee Review

1.0
5 Jun 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Rob Katz makes over $3,000,000.00 per year.

Cons

My first paycheck was only partially paid. It took nearly two months to get the rest of it. I was offered a job in a different state after working an entire season, open to close. That job was given to someone else without anyone notifying me. I made arrangements to move to a different state only to discover that my job was gone. I got a different job with Vail in the same state, and found myself waiting for nearly a month to begin work. Vail also neglected to verify my employment with an apartment complex in Eagle county, which prevented me from renting that apartment. You must work full time in eagle county to rent an apartment in eagle county. After all of this, I found myself working for a manager with issues and a bad attitude who I heard nothing but bad things about from nearly one dozen people in 2 days. I called hr and informed them that I did not want to work in that department and I wouldn’t be going back. With that, they shut off the 2018-2019 season pass that I had supposedly “earned” by working the entire 2018-2019 as a Lead Lift Operator from opening day to closing day. This company is treats employees like crap, and also failed to uphold the stipulations of my employment contract by cutting off my season pass.

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
12 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The managers were really cool and the work was fun. Pretty relaxed environment.

Cons

It was cold sometimes and long hours standing but that was all in the job description and we got jackets.

2.0
14 May 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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