Advertisement
Trending

‘Boy was this the worst job I’ve ever had’: Seasonal worker reveals his experience serving 2 Utah national parks

‘Boy was this the worst job I’ve ever had’

Photo of Stacy Fernandez

Stacy Fernandez

Worker blasts summer job at national park

Citing poor housing and work conditions, a seasonal employee called out his terrible experience at a company that serves guests of two Utah national parks.

Featured Video

The TikTok is a stitch of another former Yosemite National Park employee who worked at the national park for one month and called it “one of the worst experiences” of her life.

The Daily Dot previously covered the stitched creator’s video in which she shared that the company she was employed through did little to protect employee health amidst wildfire, had an uncomfortable housing setup, and employed managers who seemed to lack basic empathy for sick employees.

@bray_travels #stitch with @mia I can go on and on about this. Thankfully the last 2 jobs ive worked have been wonderful. #seasonalworker #exposed #exposingcompanies #seasonaljobs #sorrelriverranch ♬ original sound – Brayden Storman
Advertisement

Yosemite National Park is located in California and is known for its waterfalls, sequoia trees, and diverse wildlife. It and its other national parks across the country are seemingly popular places for young nature lovers to work seasonally.

In Brayden Storman’s (@bray_travels) TikTok, he explains that he also had a terrible experience working adjacent to iconic national parks. It is important to note that both videos call out the companies that employed the seasonal workers—not the national park management.

“I am about to expose the fuck out of this company,” Storman says.

He explained that he’s a seasonal worker, and his first seasonal summer job was in Moab, Utah, working for Sorrel River Ranch. Moab is known for its proximity to two national parks, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.

Advertisement

He described the ranch he worked for as a “really overpriced shitty lodge” about 30 minutes out from Moab. “Boy was this the worst job I’ve ever had,” Storman says.

Storman also says that both the owners and managers didn’t “give a sh*t” about their employees, specifically calling out the employee housing and poor working conditions. He added that he was at the job for five months, from June to October.

Storman alleges entire time he worked there, the employee housing had no air conditioning despite the area regularly reaching temperatures in the high 90 degrees.

When the employees informed their higher-ups, Storman says they insisted the AC units would get fixed, but ultimately, their solution was to get two box fans that just circulated the already hot air. Storman says there were also flies, bugs, and dirt in the housing units.

Advertisement

“It was disgusting,” Storman said.

Regarding the work environment, Storman said he worked at the resort’s front desk. Employees in that position are blamed for everything, he says, even things that had nothing to do with their jobs.

One example of the bad conditions was that the front desk workers were responsible for carrying guest bags. They usually used a golf cart, but management wanted them to carry the bags by hand from the parking lot to rooms so it would appear they were working harder.

“They’re more worried about us looking like we’re working hard than our well-being,” Storman said.

Advertisement

For waiters and waitresses, he explained that the restaurants didn’t get enough foot traffic for them to make a decent wage from tips. One of the bartenders was even struggling to pay rent because of this. When they asked management for hourly pay instead, Storman says were denied.

He adds that the resort cycled through three to four general managers, and one of the HR workers ultimately had to step in as manager while doing her HR job.

The video has more than 50,000 views and dozens of comments.

“I can go on and on about this. Thankfully the last 2 jobs ive worked have been wonderful,” Storman wrote in the caption.

Advertisement

In a comment, Storman added that while his work experience at the resort was terrible, he’s glad he didn’t let it ruin his view of seasonal work because he’s since had much better experiences.

Commenters shared their own perspectives.

“I wish the seasonal job environment wasn’t so damn ambiguous, like u only find out when u get there and fly across the country,” the top comment read.

“Nothing is worse than getting stuck at a seasonal travel job I’ve gotten burned multiple times now,” a person said.

Advertisement

The Daily Dot reached out to Storman for comment via Instagram DM and to Sorrel via email for comment.

 
The Daily Dot