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Hi. I’m Ben Benton from Flagstaff, Arizona. I believe that you will enjoy my daily journal from Winter Park, Colorado, Ski Resort during spring break 2000. I left downtown Flagstaff Sunday morning, March 19 with my skis, duffle, laptop computer, and portable 4-person spa, and ended up at Snoasis, a lodge midway up the mountain in Winter Park. My journal will continue through the end of March. You’ll read about Winter Park Ski Resort, Snoasis, Sunspot Lodge, the great people who work here, and anything else I can think of to write about. I’m the author of “National Park Employment Data,” a guide to working in national parks, which is available for purchase on my web site at www.gorp.com/nped/. I’ve been working in national parks and ski areas off and on for over twenty years. Because I want the data in my book to always be fresh, I continually test the concepts, employers, and tips that I provide. I first worked at Winter Park in the late 70s while I was a student at Arizona State University. |
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Wednesday, March 22, 2000 Labor Shortage There hasn’t been any snowfall since I’ve been here, other than a light dusting once or twice. This morning as I logged on the Internet, my portal page, Excite, reported that the Arizona Snowbowl had received 24 new inches of snow in the last few hours. Wow. For a ski area that almost couldn’t open this year, they are doing all right. When I clicked on the link and went to the Snowbowl site, they were reporting about 36 inches new snow. We’re supposed to get more snow here tonight, so all the outside tables were stacked on their sides after closing. I was reading the company memos on a post binder next to the time clock this morning. All season long, there have been memos about the labor shortage along with offers of all sorts for overtime rewards, recommend a friend, and so on. They have had to curtail non-guest-related services, like cleaning the reservation offices. As I mentioned in one of my Christmas break journals, Mama Mia Pizza in the basement of Snoasis didn’t open this year, mainly because of lack of help. Right now the ski instructors are running frozen pizzas through the oven for their students — a savings of four employees every day. Snoasis manager Tim said Joe at West Portal found a frozen pizza crust that really bakes and tastes good, so Tim is considering it for Snoasis. With that, Mama Mia’s could operate with two persons. Labor shortage in the resorts is reaching critical mass because of the prosperity of our nation and the full employment everywhere. It was serious last summer in Yellowstone and it is serious throughout the ski resorts this winter. At Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone last summer, they were working retirees ten and fifteen days straight in housekeeping. When they finally got a day off, they would load their motor home and leave in disgust making the shortage of room attendants even worse. Tim said he will probably sell the 60-quart Hobart mixer in
the pizzeria, a sign the shortage won’t let up soon and
he may never return to a four-person operation in Mama Mia’s.  |
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