There is no way to put in words how toxic of a company Vail is, particularly in corporate. There is only one way Vail runs things, and that is through micromanagement. No individual below the vice president level is permitted to make any decision, so unless you are a VP you will only be issued orders. Many of them. They do not care if you are already maxed out on other projects. As a result, burnout is incredibly high. The VPs, particularly in marketing, will regularly fight over what the priorities are and usually the first one to say that they promised it to the CEO wins. Frequently those promises are unrealistic and poorly executed. "It can't be done" is not an acceptable answer. The VPs show no concern for workload and will regularly commit the teams below them to ridiculous amounts of work, ignoring the protests of the middle managers trying to push back on this. When they don't get their way, they resort to talking behind employee's backs to their colleagues and throwing tantrums. The hires and promotions in the past year at the VP level have only contributed to this and damaged things more.
In addition to the micromangement and whiplash that is commonly experienced because of the VP level and their constantly-changing priorities, there is very much an "in crowd," and if you are not part of it you can expect that your ideas will be shot down (if they are even heard). You will also be talked about by the "in crowd" behind your back. Lying is common among this group. The culture at Vail is all about pinning blame on people and this clique has no problem lying so that they aren't stuck with the blame.
The return to office mandate is just one more tool the VPs will have to micromanage their people. They are advertising it as a means to improve productivity and collaboration. However, it really comes down to the fact that they can't control you as much if they can't see you. Despite how they are trying to spin it internally, this is the loss of a well-loved benefit and it is highly unlikely that something will be done to offer up benefits to replace it. And certainly don't speak out against it!
The end result is that people are miserable and many are trying to leave. Turnover at Vail is higher than I have seen anywhere. Vail doesn't care though. They never have. Their employees are just cogs in a wheel that can easily be replaced. This sentiment is especially true at the all-important VP level who only cares about selling more passes.
