I truly love my job. Some days suck but the good days far outweigh the bad. I've had a lot of jobs and this job is blows the rest out of the water. Lift ops just seems like where I was meant to be. I will always love working here, no matter what happens, no matter how many people call in, I will always show up and love it. My manager has really turned this place into a place that I want to not only work at but bring as many people with me as possible. I love working here. I love my coworkers, I love that our ideas are listened to and not just shut down. I've never seen a job or a boss treat people this way. Cody has made huge improvements since last season. He's not an arrogant d bag anymore, it's pretty obvious that he actually cares about us. Even when people do stupid stuff, he gives people chances. Marshal and Dan are also killing it this season, both of them do a great job and are easy to talk to. I have witnessed some changes over the years at Meadows but this season seems to be the best one for positive changes. People will always find something to complain about but I really feel happier here than I have ever been anywhere else. It can be really tough having seasonal work but 95% of the team makes it worth it. I want to add a little constructive criticism that hopefully can be found to be helpful. The training needs some work, I've heard of multiple people having their paperwork lost or misplaced. Waiting for days or more when they did what they were supposed to only to find out it was lost is very disheartening to some. The "trainers" should probably get on the hill more to see how the training is going. Sitting in the office and not monitoring the program that they are in charge of does not seem very effective. Belle has been doing a lot better for sure but they need to get on the same page or it will never work. I love this place and just want to help make things even better.
We really appreciate the positive feedback. I am grateful for the patience and understanding from most of you as we went through the change in leadership last season. I know that it has not always been easy and that sometimes I didn’t always approach things from the right direction. What I can say is that we are 108% committed to making this department better, stronger and more enriching than ever before. We have tried to learn from past issues and do what we can to make things better not only for this season but seasons to come. We have weekly meetings to ensure that the leadership stays focused and on the same page. Some of the changes that you have seen this season have been a direct result of your feedback. The management team is united in the goal of making this the department that will retain employees for years to come! As far as the training goes, we had a training meeting on Friday. The intent of this meeting was to get everyone on the same page so that we can make sure that our employees are not only receiving the training they need, but that the associated documentation is being handled in a professional and timely manner. As far as the “being on the hill more” concern goes, there is a lot of time required at a computer to make sure that the training is being documented properly. The on-hill portion of this job should be shared by everyone in a leadership role, not just the Training Administrators.
- Cody Howe
- After 7 years in the same locker I was moved to a shared locker. I understand, we have a lot of instructors, but I now share one of the smallest lockers available and it is literally impossible for both of us to fit our things.
My previous locker was one of the larger ones, a more reasonable solution would be to move someone into the larger space. Perhaps going forward anyone required to share, gets assigned the larger lockers.
- Would love to see the vegetarian chili back on the menu; not many quick vegan/veg options as it is.
Let's see if we can assign you a locker by yourself now or move you both to a bigger locker. We've had a few team members leave for various reasons and we might be able to get you moved. Please come see me or Jillianne about it. The veggie chili was yummy. Maybe Mark Fellows can comment about that. -Tyler Barnes, Learning Center Operations Manager.
I'd like to say that I love working at Meadows. I feel that the management staff really cares about our workplace and our employees. I overheard a disciplinary conversation between a supervisor and an employee that seemed unable to make it to work consistently, and I was blown away by how respectful the supervisor was with this offender. I wish the supervisors at my "real" job treated the employees half as respectfully as the MHM supervisor did. You either a) hire really good staff to begin with or b) do fantastic training with your supervisory staff or c) all of the above.
And as for the coffee in the employee breakroom, I'm one of the lovers of that perk. I haven't seen the big messes alluded to in other surveys, but hey- we have new employees every year that have to learn that their mother doesn't work here so they need to clean up after themselves. And I appreciate the employee specials that we're offered in the Comfort Zone. Sometimes we hear about the special in the MHM Team Mail and that's really nice. I've worked at Meadows for 10 years, and last year was the first I knew about the employee meal special. Thanks for that.
And lastly, what do you guys think about posting a sign in the Comfort Zone (and elsewhere in the lodge too, I'm sure) that tables are on a first-come, first-served basis and cannot be "reserved" for the day by dumping all your backpacks and picnic lunches all over the tables and chairs. I'm flabbergasted that our guests think this is acceptable.
Until there is employee parking i'm going to keep mentioning it. What a hassle to have to park at HRM when you have to work the night shift. Its a huge waste of our employees time and since our employees are already wasting enough time getting to and from work why do we continue to do that to them? I saw there was an improvement to the meal discount for supervisors and higher, but why extend that to our lower wage workers? With the current discount 1 Sasquatch burger a small fry and a monster energy drink put you at the limit. That's one meal. A lot of your employees spend a majority of their day up here, seems they should be able to eat more than once a day.
It's hard to fill one of these out and stay anonymous. So here it is, not a fan of access control. Its kind of a useless department that micro manages lifties from the basement. It is really annoying having them call us on channel 1 while we are already doing our job. Checking tickets has always been a part of our job, now we not only have our supervisors checking on us we have someone inside that doesn't really even know whats going on or even how we do our job. I've seen our access leads fix pass problems from the tablet faster then access control does from their computers.
It would be nice if the upper levels of leadership would talk to the people outside running the mountain. I don't personally know how everything works and good ideas are good ideas but i feel there is a serious lack of interdepartmental cohesion. One example of this is the location of the mini pipe(dumb spot) we have a real issue of people hitting the EZ Rider ski-under(legal requirement) we've been told use more bamboo. Well the bamboo is not the problem it's not being able to see the rope. We have bamboo spaced sometimes as close as 5 feet. Also a legal requirement is to not have bamboo under a chair so that leaves a 20 foot section of just rope. The location of the mini pipe doesn't leave very much room until you hit our legally required ski-under. We end up replacing multiple sticks of bamboo there daily, not very cost effective on top of potential injuries.
Some sort of wax or tuning bench in lift ops would be great, I know its not a requirement to be a lift op, but i don't think this mountain could operate without lifties being able to ski and snowboard. Other departments that are required to use their own personal skis and snowboards for work get discounts in the HPC and/or have their own stations, get supplied P-tex and wax, etc. I personally already broke a board opening weekend, now I have another board in serious need of repair with a core shot. I need my snowboards for work, everyday!
I'm sure i have more but I'll digress and say I do love this place and love being on this mountain everyday.
The Access Control department is far from useless, they have been fixing a multitude of issues before anyone even knows about them. Also, this is the FIRST season that we are using them, there will be growing pains. When changes are made, sometimes it takes time to find a groove. The lift ops management team has spent a lot of time working with the resort management team to hammer out all the issues and while it is still a work in progress, a lot of progress has been made. We are also working on cross training with both departments so that each side can see what the other does. Hopefully that will help the team be stronger. We have also moved the bulk of the channel 1 traffic to channel 7 to help alleviate the channel 1 traffic.
I will discuss the mini pipe issues with Mel this week.
I am working on a deal with Parks to get a supply of wax for lift ops. This would not be infinite and I would ask that everyone uses their fair share of wax. I will update everyone as this process moves forward. As far as a set space to do the actual waxing, we have the vent in the front of the crew room and that is the best space to utilize, unfortunately it is also in the front of the crew room……I can look into the possibility of adding a space in my SWP plan for the summer. Team members also get a discount on tuning and waxing in the HPC.
-Cody Howe
Maxi glide wax for the rental skis!!
And an online system for folks to reserve nordic lessons in advance.; like the snow school has for downhill and snowboarding.
Thanks for sharing, I will discuss the Maxi glide with Nordic Leadership. We should be able to sell Nordic lessons online as well, I will work on getting that going.
-Jeremy Riss