Sunshine Village Reviews

Sexist and old fashioned idea of what effective and presentable employees are; men banned from having hair longer than shoulder length (forced to cut it or walk away from the job), no tattoos, no facial piercings, no more than one ear piercing, no "unnatural" hair colours (regardless of how presentable you look. You could have straggly, greasy blonde hair pulled back into a haphazard ponytail and that's more acceptable than carefully groomed, clean, styled french braided pink or blue hair). Management structured so that it takes literal years for new ideas or trials for new practices to get into place. Despite saying that they listen to feedback, often find yourself feeling as though you're yelling into a vacuum. You'll make much more money (with far less stress) serving or bartending than any kind of managing. Last I heard, you can't apply to have the money in place of your season pass even though you're unlikely to be able to use it fully (not enough time to do so) and they tend to say that the reason wages are low for management is because of the additional value that the pass adds. Training for management minimal, I was fortunate enough to have good training from line manager. Would recommend trying to find private accommodation (although that is hellishly expensive). If you're in staff accommodation and fired, you technically have 24 hours to move out, although in practice I knew a few people who were given less than that. Many people had to rely on the goodness of friends with sofas to bridge the gap or risk homelessness. Housing in Banff is a critical issue so finding alternative accommodation outside of hostels can be very hard. You're expected to be available for every shift needed at busy times but during slow points of the season will be cut and sometimes fired for no reason other than to cut labour costs. Don't live on hill unless you're happy with a quiet life - no kitchens for staff accommodation, can't get on or off the mountain after the gondola closes (17:30 Sat-Thurs, 22:00 Fri). Staff cafeteria not good.

Culture of firing staff rather than fixing issues. They can just hire someone new, why bother retraining? No kitchen in staff accommodations, most staff accom shared bedrooms/bathrooms. Isolated from town if you live on hill (gondola stops at 430pm most days, no rides back up). Minimum wage for most roles, management not much better. Used to have end of season retention bonus, but they took that away when minimum wage went up. No/minimal training for new Management staff. Very few returning staff. No benefits unless you've logged 5+ seasons. Badly maintained staff accommodation facilities. Useless HR, basically there to hand out uniforms and to chastise you if you forget your staff pass. Fired if you're late more than 3 times, but only if your manager doesn't like you, no enforcement otherwise. Old fashioned uniform and grooming policy (No facial piercings, no unnatural hair colours, men must have short hair, etc.) Staff cafe prices rise every year. Uneven/unfair work distribution. Expected to work every day during holidays to "make hay while the sun shines", then in slow weeks expected to be ok with working 3 days/week. Eternally understaffed. Wonder why?? Mostly staffed by Aussies who don't care about work because they're only in the country for 6 months.