Disconnected Management - Staff Accountant Vail Resorts Employee Review

1.0
Oct 13, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Somewhat flexible hours, good people (although not necessarily good workers), free ski passes for family, and it's a job in a bad economy.

Cons

Since the corporate division moved from the mountains to Broomfield in June 2010, turnover has been terrible. The initial departure of 40-60% of staff wasn't surprising, but people have been consistently leaving since that initial event. In the last several months, I would estimate a person per week has left from our floor. This has left a huge void in the company as people are being promoted due to existence and not ability, and no one in upper management has dared to bring up the issue in an all staff setting. Instead, they stick to the talking points of "we are average in compensation and benefits" and "the employee survey showed employees are happy!" even though that survey included seasonal employees who just wanted the free pass. As to why people are leaving, compensation is a big reason, particularly that there is no additional compensation beyond a paycheck (no bonuses, no profit sharing, no "good job" Starbucks gift certificates). Benefits are completely average with health, dental, 401k (0.5% match up to 2%), and time off amounting to 2wk vacation and 8d holidays, but lumped into a Paid Time Off (PTO) bucket that makes it look like we're getting more. With the corporate environment like it is and upper management playing mute, people are jumping for other companies that offer even a day more of vacation time.

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
Apr 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fun job. Great coworkers. Great benefits including ski pass

Cons

You are expected to work holidays

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.

3
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