The reality of working in a ski resort
Tens of thousands of tourists travel to ski destinations the world over. It is a vast and profitable industry but do those who work for these companies truly benefit?
I spoke with Laura, a former employee of a large British ski tour operator. She was placed out in France during the 2022/23 winter situated in La Plagne. I spoke with her over the phone, she now works in London as a business analyst. This was the first time I had heard the voice of my friend in many months, I was excited to speak to her again.
Laura and I became friends during the first week of our season together, there was only a small team of us that had been flown out to Chamonix, France, for specific training as we had a new and different job role from that of the normal ski season rep. Although after training we ended up in different resorts, me Val Thorens and Laura La Plagne we kept in touch, and it turns out we had very similar experiences of this unique work.
We all had different reasons for deciding to travel overseas and work in a foreign nation, Laura's reason was her own. “For me I decided when I was about thirteen that I wanted to be fluent in French. I had already been skiing with my family, I am lucky to have done that. I know that was an option doing a season”. Laura was just one of the 1.5 million Brits that travel to ski every winter. I was not one of them. Like many of our colleagues and those who work in ski resorts, they skied before, and since they started skiing knew, they would do anything to work the duration of the season and get to ski almost all the time. Laura “loved being able to ski all the time and learn to board properly”.
It was beautiful, the mountains spectacular and awe inspiring. The freezing fresh air fills your lungs and sparks imagination. I distinctly remembered walking up a mountain, snowboard strapped to my back at four in the morning. Reaching a peak to look down upon the valleys of the Alps at sunrise, it was spectacular, a moment that made the struggles of the season worth it.
Yet the access to the slopes and the one-off moments were just a few of the positives of the season we could come up with. “At the start we were over worked” Laura says. There is little difference between the experiences to be had amongst the different companies you can work for in a resort. The hardship we all seemed to share was the fact we were indeed over worked. Long hours where a lot is required from looking after guests to accounting. There was always a plethora of work to be done. As Laura said, it also didn’t help that “the company hadn’t thought very well about accommodation placement”.
Laura opened up to me, “living alone was lonely, it was sad to be isolated”. The isolation that you are bound to experience when you move abroad, working in an unknown environment with unknown people. Its challenging to adapt to being so far from home. Homesickness is only perpetuated through the inability to leave the resort. Feelings of confinement and isolation are prominent within seasonal workers. The times we did leave resort for Visa purposes, I would notice the road signs to Turin and Milan, we weren’t far away yet those cities, that exploration were out of reach.
Laura tells me she, “used the company counselling service that you could use on the company website”. This offering was not well known. This could have helped me deal with the issue of loneliness which I also felt, but the counselling was not advertised to us. At least they were offering some help. This shows to us however that the company feels a need to offer this service to their workers. It seems a lot of the struggles Laura and I experienced were also experienced by a lot of our colleagues and the workers of other employers in the mountains. These issues would sometimes result in individuals resigning and returning home, surely this should be avoided? Shouldn’t the companies want to keep their employees as long as possible? The idea of taking care of the mental health of their employees seems to be “a learning curve for” the companies, Laura mentions.
The plight of the seasonal worker is not a secret. Laura tells me about how she already knew “how hard season workers worked, and I already knew that they weren’t treated well and that’s a fact of working a season”. A common conception that is simply accepted by the employers, employees, and tourists. Should this really be the case? We should treat seasonal workers the same as any other type of worker. The threat to mental health and stability when you are signed up to a temporary contract can be supremely damaging. Ski season work is simply unsustainable for the masses in the long run.
Laura and I won’t be working another season. “I’m glad I did it, enjoyed it but still wouldn’t want to do another one”, she tells me. We both shared the opinion that it was an immensely valuable learning opportunity and there where good times, but the bad times? There were just too many.
We both did learn how to snowboard however, Laura tells me, “I am going on a holiday this year and I will board for most of it. I can keep it up and I am proud of that”. I know for a fact I will snowboard again and get back out to the mountains, amongst the deep soft snow and underneath the crystal clear starry nights.
Laura sums up our experience of the ski companies well, “It’s hard for a seasonal company to be perfect and to actually be able to look after people well enough when the work is so difficult”. It's hard work by it's nature, the companies have a long way to go to ensure that their staff are treated adequately, but they are getting there.
If you are trying to decide whether to work a ski season, just be aware of the positives and negatives. There is plenty of both, at the very least there is plenty of life lessons to be learnt and long-lasting memories to be made.