Experience of a Lifetime...Employees Need Not Apply - Developer Vail Resorts Employee Review

1.0
12 Jul 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free coffee Free granola bars Decent work/life balance Newer office Enjoyable co-workers

Cons

HORRIBLE pay (Vail pays 20-30% less than most other employers for experienced professionals) Vacation policy is mediocre at best -2 weeks of accrued PTO for the first five years, but ALL holidays must come out PTO -1 week of sick time Other benefits are mediocre -Only one medical plan to choose from with two tiers of coverage -Dental plan is average No attempt to develop internal employees -Most new and exciting work done by a staff of contract resources -Training is almost non-existent (Internal online training is a joke) -Annual training budget is rarely communicated -Identifying, communicating and advocating for outside training falls on the individual employee and is rarely, if ever, approved by management Tiny cubes in cube farm unless you're middle to upper management Little to no upward mobility -Hiring external candidates for management positions is typical for almost all departments -This goes back to the lack of internal employee development -Flat organization leads to rare openings for upper management positions -No career path defined for technical leaning staff. Micro-management from executive staff -Executives must approve EVERY minor decision by middle management Example: Executives sign-off on hiring of contract staff Poor communication for upper management -Decisions made by upper management are never communicate well with leads to departments blaming each other for unilateral executive decision that were NOT well thought out -When decision are made by executives there is no communication regarding the reasoning behind these key decisions. Lack of innovation -Executive staff seems to believe that if they weren't the source of an idea it isn't worthwhile -Many key staff members have been with company too long and aren't open to new ideas or ways of running the business -Company is not willing to invest money in key systems. Many believe, "if it ain't broke, why fix it"

Explore other reviews about Vail Resorts

5.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Upper management was very helpful

Cons

Seasonal position only, wished it was year round

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.

3
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