Pros
Respect. Education & Training. Service. Variety of positions. Travel and work in various locations for the same company. This company respects the employee and practices "The Golden Rule." As an employee of Four Seasons, we are an admired member of the business community since Four Seasons sets the bar for which the rest of the hospitality industry reach. Education and training are a given when first hired, although continuing education seems curtailed both by the economy and the hotel manager who wants to save money. If you want to be of service in any manner, if you desire to provide a high standard of service in all that you do, then, Four Seasons will give you the opportunity to do so. With many locations around the world, all employees may transfer and try another position and location - not just managers.
Cons
Time consuming. Not enough workers for the work. Lower management personnel or supervisors not as "bright" as could be. Hard to acquire in-house upgrading of job skills. Its managers seems to expect you to be married to the Four Seasons - they want more and more of your time; that is a given, whether in an administrative position or face-to-face with guests. And, as they're always looking to save labor costs, they want one person to do the work of 1.9 employees! They could save more money by having less managers. Some lower management or supervisors were people that may be just marking time, incapable of improving managerial skills, unwilling to use advanced technology but expected the hourly worker to do so, or were possibly "parked" in position by upper management as they are not bad enough to fire but not good enough to promote. Once trained for your position, your time is spent on meeting standards. Formal training or upgrading your skills in a classroom setting seems to end unless your whole department is undergoing a change (say the focus of your wine list). On-line training was not as good as it could be - access to computers for training (during employee's time off) was available, but hard to find any educational programs on the computer. Had to take a night school hospitality industry class and requested days off to coincide with college day classes.
