Unethical company making astronomical profits with slave labor - Anonymous employee Vail Resorts Employee Review

1.0
Dec 21, 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked for this company for 7 years after college because I actually enjoyed my job, local management and being in the mountains.

Cons

You’re slave labor. They give you a free ski pass, but you can go work for Walmart or McDonald and make significantly more and pay for your own ski pass within a month earning the higher wages. They treat you like slave labor and you have zero room for growth, even if you save every penny you can’t afford to have a family or buy real estate. I worked for private clubs and saw Rob Katz a good amount and it was always hard to stomach after working there 5 years and earning 3 promotions that I was still only making $16/hour while him and his Wall Street buddy’s were making millions exploiting the land and their employees. I also had to get multiple surgeries after the ski season and racked up considerable medical debt. Left the company in 2020 and got a job immediately which paid me more in the first year than 7 at VR. I just went back for a wedding to find that my friends in upper management roles couldn’t even get a 5% raise when inflation is 6.3% and they’re paying new employees $16-$20/hr. That’s great for them, but the only reason VR is willing to do that is bc they won’t have workers otherwise with rising rent prices and a huge shortage of rentals due to landlords selling their properties to cash in. This company needs to have media attention like Walmart and Amazon for mistreatment of employees, but they pay millions a bear so that’s never heard of. I made a comment on a Forbes article bashing Walmart and Amazon and said they should take a look at VR and got called into my managers office the next day. They’re a shameful and greedy company that doesn’t care about you or the environment.

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Upper management was very helpful

Cons

Seasonal position only, wished it was year round

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.

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