Also a lot of bad people working for them that HR refuses to fire until they get arrested by NPS. Xanterra is known for hiring people with criminal records, alcoholics and substance abusers, and internationals on J1 visas who live 4 or 5 people to a cabin or room and tend to party and drink to excess whenever they are not working. While I worked there there were multiple fights and assaults, some involving knifes, sexual assault lots of theft and domestic violence and multiple known stalkers, who were allowed to continue working for Xanterra even with police reports being filed about their behavior with NPS. Xanterra HR were well aware of what was going on with some of their problem employees but they never seemed to want to be proactive and fire someone for misconduct until that person had gone too far and gotten arrested for something by NPS and by then it was always too late and the damage had been done.
There is a real problem with favoritism among the management and HR. Favorites are allowed to get away with frequent tardiness, no call-no shows, unprofessional conduct including having an attitude with and harassing and stalking other employees, violating dorm visitation rules, racism, lying in reports and witness statements and not performing essential functions of their jobs. Although there is favoritism in a lot of workplaces, the favoritism I encountered at Xanterra South Rim was extreme, far worse than anywhere else I have ever worked.
In their literature Xanterra tells employees about how they will get to work in some of the most beutiful places on earth, the national parks. While this is true, the living conditions that most employees experience in the park are spartan at best and a health risk at worst. The worst of the dorms are infested with bedbugs and mice and the carpets on the floor are soiled with vomit, spilled food and beer, urine and blood. Unless your status is high enough you will most likely have roommates, who may be criminals who may steal from you or they may be drug users or letting their friends in the place at all hours and being noisy and inconsiderate. Food poisoning happens from time to time if you don't pick "safe" options from the menu of the cafeterias. The only way to avoid living in these conditions is to prepare your own food and have a job that grants you high enough status to get an apartment style place of your own or to have your own trailer or RV, which most people living in the park cannot afford. On the plus side, the rent is very low, less than $100 a month, utilities included for the dorms, slightly more for the people who have their own apartments. They emphasize that they are an at-will employer and can fire you for any reason or no reason, but there are no standard, one size fits all discipline policies because they prefer to do things on a case by case basis which allows for all the favoritism.
I am not necessarily writing this to discourage people from working for Xanterra I just want people to be aware of the pro's and con's and know what they are getting in to. You could experience some of the problems I wrote about or you may get a great roommate and enjoy your job and get to enjoy living in a national park for cheap. It helps if you have high status and surround yourself with the right kind of people. There are plenty of good people who work for Xanterra and they outnumber the bad eggs, but unfortunately Xanterra seems to have a habit of hiring and refusing to fire quite a few bad ones too. If you are interested in working in a national park and can't get a job with NPS you may want to consider working for Xanterra, but proceed with caution.
