r/SeasonalWork

While Mt.Hood meadows upped their pay, Timberline lowered theirs this year!! What the hell! More people need to talk about this.

Lift Operations position at Mt.Hood meadows starts at $19/hr (or $18.99 to be specific) while a Lift Operations position at Timberline starts at $16/hr

Parking attendant at Mt.Hood Meadows STARTS at $20.00 – $21.82/hr meanwhile Timberline is offering $16-$17/hr for parking lot attendant.

I understand these are very entry level positions, but with the housing crisis around the area, how are you going to offer $16/hr? These workers are lucky if they are able to live in Welches, most are living in Sandy and at $16/hr how does that entice anyone to want to work there!?

Think about the type of employees it’ll bring, those that are okay with .50 cents above minimum wage, those that genuinely do not care to load anyone safety on a lift, those that do not care about parking cars safety and only hot boxing the parking lot shack.

I mean Jesus, the sandy Taco Bell is offering $15.55-17/hr and at least you don’t have to worry about your child slipping off the lift, only potential diarrhea.

Do better, Timberline.

Alright folks, you were right… Xanterra blows. I started my first seasonal gig with them at YNP 4 months ago and can confirm that everything people say about Xanterra is largely correct. Dorms suck, EDR is borderline poison, HR is useless even with serious issues, and in my opinion the overall vibe here feels very heavy and depressing. Kind of like a land of lost souls. I drove all the way here from Florida excited to take a shot at the whole seasonal work thing, and after just 4 months I feel beat. My “contract” ends soon and now I’m not even sure if I want to continue living the seasonal lifestyle. I’m seriously considering just putting down roots somewhere and joining the “real world” again.

So my question is, Is this just a Xanterra thing or is this largely how the seasonal work industry operates? Are other companies any better? I certainly don’t expect luxury in this lifestyle and there’s BS no matter where you work, but by god, I feel like I’m getting off a shitty military deployment right now.

I will say that there is good people here, I’ve made a handful of really solid friends and meet my gf here. Also the park is absolutely incredible. So there has been alot of great positives to this, but this kind of working/living environment is just a little too much for me to want to continue dealing with.

I have 4 days left. I have been here since day one. It has been over 5 months since I embraced the life of a free person, and despite the friends I’ve made, all has gone quiet on the F&B front, as hardly anyone has survived the season. We’ve lost just about 95% of our OGs. With each waking day, there have been new faces, slowly distorted by the bitter reality that they have walked into a time loop—a corporate prison.

The title is a simple metaphor for the sheer primitive nature of the Xanterra social hierarchy: a corporation hiring people from all walks of life, marking some as nobles, giving them a name tag that flashes “manager,” while others—the peasant staff—display the scarlet letters of a tag that says “employee.” All come from different backgrounds, but not one is more qualified than the other.

Yet, despite all of us coming to the park to experience the eloquent nature of this beautiful phenomenon, it has instead created a true monster—one that erupts more frequently within the hot, volcanic pressure cooker that is Food & Beverage.

It is as if the management team has been given a key and the staff, chains. A key is simply too much power for man to bear, and therefore, the parasite of power gnaws away at their amygdala.

Four days left. And I have watched as my fellow comrades have been fired, picked off one by one by the evil that is “location”. Some have even taken themselves out because they simply can’t continue. I’ve held my comrades in my arms as I’ve watched the life fade from their eyes after a shift from hell.

We are united by trauma.

Why have I decided to stay, you ask? This is a great question, for the human psyche is mysterious. Something has bound me to these yellow walls. Something won’t let me leave.

I have 4 days left. Four days until these cold prison walls release me. Four days until I can feel the sun on my cheeks as one of the free—one of the consumers—one of the unemployed.

To all those who have made it to the end of their “contract,” I salute you and the sacrifice you have made in order to complete your mission of securing the bag. For those who have fallen, maybe it was for the best. Maybe some lives were never meant to be spent in eternity behind a metaphorical cell. For those who are debating enlisting, heed my warning: this experience may be what you make of it, or it will become what they make of you. The choice is yours.

—F&B 007, signing off.

Hey yall, I’m looking to move to Big Sky for the ski season. This will be the first time I have moved anywhere for seasonal work, so i’m looking for really any and all advice people have. But more specifically i’m looking fire advice on how to find roommates and how to find the best serving/bartending gigs at a ski resort.

Looking for advice/insight/wondering what other’s have experienced.

My partner and I have been working at the same ranch every summer for the last 6 years. There is so much that we love about it, AND every year we see things that need to be improved but aren’t sure how to go about making those changes happen. Let me explain.

The owners are now in their 80’s and just amazing. They are the reason I keep returning. Due to their age, however, the manager and his wife have taken on more of the owner’s duties. We will call the John and Sally. John and Sally do so much for the ranch, they truly work their butts off. However, John and Sally frequently fight in front of staff. At the beginning of this season John started throwing things in a fit of rage in front of our brand new staff, scaring them all. Sally frequently speaks to John as if she were his defiant teenage daughter, which sends him off. It’s really awkward.

They also have two very young kids, a baby and a toddler, which they expect the staff to help babysit. The babysitting is not in any of our contracts, nor is it made clear that it is an expectation in interviews, and yet the kids will just be left by John and Sally sometimes for other staff to watch. Sally gets very upset when staff doesn’t offer to take the kids. I understand her frustration, I’m sure it’s hard as a mother, but seems an unfair expectation.

John and Sally also like to fly by the seat of their pants, so there’s never a set plan for the day or clear communication. This leads to a lot of frustration and conflict with staff.

To be honest, this stuff has been going on for years, to the point that I almost want to take any new staff aside at the beginning of the season and warn them about the chaos that is about to ensue. I have spoken to the owners about my concerns, but they are incredibly loyal to John and Sally and also feel that they don’t really have a say because they are trying to stay out of things. But all of the employees have come to my partner and I with these concerns, I think because we have been there for so many years, and all we can do is commiserate.

It is to the point that we are going to give them one more summer and then be done. But it feels a disservice to not make them aware of things they need to improve on.

Is this typical of all mom-and-pop seasonal jobs? Should we express our concerns? How do we go about it in a way that they won’t feel attacked?

Hi All, I’m thinking of applying for a seasonal position after retirement soon and would like to hear anyone’s experience that is around 60 years are older. Thanks in advance!

My winter plans have fallen through and I don't have the time to line anythkng up online but desperately need a gig with housing. I have enough savings to go anywhere in the country and am thinking about going to a place with high demand, putting myself out there and applying in person.

Any suggestions about places or areas that would need people / be cool to work at that generally provides housing would be hugely appreciated.

I'm open to anywhere but would prefer to go somewhere warmer just in case I've gotta rough it for a bit. I'm more comfortable guiding, serving, or bartending but am open to anything really.

Thanks for any information :)