Pros
Acceptable Benefits for full-time employees beginning at 30 hours a week Large portfolio of locations, benefitting personal travel and job security when moving Starting wages begin above Federal and most State minimums Consistent hours at larger properties, with ability to easily work in other departments or other properties to maintain needed hours. The company utilizes ADP for its payroll services, making taxes and payment management easy. Task force opportunities are available for those who prefer to move around between locations. These positions are mainly for staffing their seasonal properties, though may be called on in event of emergency. Many properties provide a free lunch via an employee cafeteria. At properties with an employee cafeteria they will often have their restaurant provide a free meal to evening and overnight staff when they do not have food out in the cafeteria. This is not universal at all properties, but it is appreciated where it is offered.
Cons
Incompetent, inconsiderate, and outright hostile Human Resources managers is often the standard across the board. Very little consideration and oversight goes into the most crucial of management positions. Incompetence and neglect are commonplace across all departments. Executive leadership pay no mind to the realities of operations that most of their portfolio faces. Changes to policy are often made without consideration for how it will effect the business and employees who are required to enforce the decision. Middle management salaries are often well below acceptable standards outside of their larger properties. Opportunities for growth are minimal, often regardless of property size. Positions that would best be given as a promotion to senior members of staff are often given to outside workers with irrelevant or a lack of experience. Leadership in charge of budgeting have been making poor decisions when it comes to what is provided to properties as of recent. This has caused multiple pressure-points at smaller properties that are difficult to address. Competence does not appear to be a requirement to maintain higher status within the company, as long as you are able to warm-up to the right decision makers. The general manager at all properties I have worked at are noticeably egotistical, unaware of the difficulties other departments face, and quick to belittle the skills of rank-and-file staff despite needing to rely on said staff for nearly everything. Ownership is generally unpleasant. "Attitude" problems are often ignored in higher management staff, while being overbearing in their enforcement of middle and lower staff. There is a heavy air of misogyny in the company that extends to treatment in the workplace and salaries provided. Women in the company are often required to take on massive workloads in comparison to their male counterparts just for equal pay. Hierarchy will overlooked quite often if the person in question is a woman. Male management is also often treated as a protected class in regards to the treatment of their female coworkers. This is obviously a cultural issue at large, not contained to Highgate itself, but it is incredibly severe within this company that not listing it would be dishonest. Smaller properties accounting and sales teams are often staffed entirely by complex staff. Which at best leaves on-site staff with long wait times for assistance from these teams, and (most commonly) at worst results in neglect and laziness. The laziness issue is seen mainly from the sales team. Accounting departments are often understaffed compared to their workload, especially complex teams. Targeting of specific employees is common on all levels and is rarely addressed until it becomes a larger issue. Hostile work environments are common across nearly all departments and management, if they are not a direct cause of such, are often unwilling to take action on the matter. Expectations of individual staff is uneven and rewards for excellent work are few and far between. Executive management will rarely pay mind to the actual operations of their hotels that they do not see on a daily basis so long as the numbers being pulled in are acceptable. This causes remote properties with high Average Daily Rates to fall behind in regards to policy and upkeep. Management is slow to address educated concerns. Quality Assurance teams are often ignorant to the realities of the properties they are reviewing. Complex/Executive Management are prone to applying policy across the board of the properties they oversee, which often results in smaller properties floundering as they take on policies that were designed for large resorts. Concerns regarding these policies fall on deaf ears. Hourly staff are treated as bodies above all else. Highgate is not a company you should work at if you wish to push upwards in your career. Disciplinary action caries heavy consequences and is both unevenly and unfairly leveled against employees. There have been instances of employees being penalized for lack of attendance brought on by disabilities. This is also unevenly leveled, younger staff with medical difficulties are not held to the same standards as older staff with similar complications. Those facing mental health challenges should ensure they have FMLA support as management is often unempathetic to the difficulties this industry can present to the more mentally volatile. Work-life balance is not a priority to upper management when it comes to their other staff. Hourly employees often have to fight for months in order to get on a schedule that is in agreement with their personal life. Upper management is often free to work from home as they please, and will often disappear from their office for unrelated business off-property, middle management is not provided this leniency. Unionization and strikes have become quite common at properties in states where that is a possibility. This is obviously a good thing, but it has been on the uptick in recent years. I cannot speak for the personal experience of those properties as I have not worked for them, but mentioning that unions have felt the need to be more active in their efforts feels necessary. Termination of an employee rarely happens, even in cases where it is needed immediately. An employee has 12 strikes before termination is considered, which is a boon for the average worker who does not cause problems and maintains their expected productivity, but enables bad actors within all workplaces.