What a Free Ski Pass Can Do

I interviewed for a job in Vermont once. There was an opening for a sales associate in a small outdoor retail shop located in downtown Burlington. It didn’t pay very much, and wasn’t really worth attempting to move from my hometown on Lake Ontario, across the Champlain Valley to Vermont even if I had gotten the job. Which I didn’t. But aside from the prospect of needing to work a second job just to make ends meet, there was the benefits package. I would receive pretty decent health insurance for me and my wife (no kids then), the usual allotted paid time off, and the bonus: a free season pass to the local ski resort and the local climbing gym. I didn’t really ski or climb, but given the sanctioned opportunity to take time out of work to go play, I figured it would be worth learning both activities.
Companies within the outdoor industry, both on the retailer side and the guiding/programmatic side have long adopted variations on the theme of gear discounts, passes to local ski resorts, climbing gyms, mandatory “get outside” days, informal dress, and other such perks for their employees. There are, admittedly, several obvious reasons.
Firstly, and at the risk of generalization, many people who choose to use their skill sets in the outdoor industry are usually interested in the outdoors. Most have an interest in some particular outdoor discipline, like skiing, paddling, climbing, or even yoga on a stand up paddle board (SUP). For those who create, build, sell and actively promote or engage in such activities from a marketing standpoint, it makes sense to encourage the people who work for you to go use the equipment you design, and maintain a passion and familiarity in their outdoor activity of choice. It is good business, certainly.
Another point that can be made is that in certain parts of the guiding world and in other places that incorporate regular, guided expeditions as part of the institutional framework, offering discounts, “pro-deals” and other incentives makes sense because equipment is expensive, and the pay is not always commensurate, but the quality of equipment can be vital to safety in the middle of nowhere. But these and other obvious points aside, there is I think, a less obvious benefit to these benefits.
Before I continue, allow me to step back a bit and change course (don’t worry, I’ll try not to lose you). Businesses of every size claim to struggle with providing a fair wage, let alone additional benefits (or perhaps because of them). I sat in an HR meeting in a small business once, and the President of the company along with the woman who was filling the HR role candidly laid out the health insurance options for that year saying, “we’ve literally culled through hundreds of plans and options trying to find the most cost-effective plans that also were not completely useless to you [our employees].” Having attained a higher level of responsibility within the organization later, I learned how true that was. For some small businesses, offering a fair wage is without question, but the challenge of subsidizing health insurance, including supplemental plans from companies like Aflac, retirement, offering life insurance and paying the premium, paying employment taxes, regular bonuses, and other additional benefits is often quite legitimate, and well, challenging.
On the other hand, as an employee who contributes to health insurance, health insurance supplements, maybe contributes to a Health Savings Account, pays income tax, contributes to a retirement plan, and saves a bit, even with an arguably fair wage for the position and industry, living on what’s left over can be challenging as well. And as a non-exempt, traditional employee as classified under many state labor, wage and hour laws, I had many protections I didn’t even think about. It just was part of working. Now that I rely on negotiated contracts, drumming up business for myself, and have to pay for everything myself, it is still just as challenging if not more so, to live on what’s left. Without many of the protections of being a “traditional” employee.
The idea of portable health care plans is not new. In some countries, like Canada, the UK and Switzerland, individuals can, or have been able to, purchase their own private plan. The health insurance then travels with them regardless of their place of employment. Retirement plans can operate in a similar way. Community health share programs are also more prevalent, with many people opting to join these co-op style health sharing arrangements. Even here in Washington State, there has been talk in the legislature of creating a legal structure around portable benefits plans for freelancers, into which hiring companies can pay into optionally on behalf of the freelancer.
Without diminishing the many real issues of pre-existing conditions, rising costs of healthcare services, problems of poor health habits, the fact that the tax system favors employee-subsidized plans versus privately-purchased ones, and on and on, I am purposely not focusing on a solution to the issue of healthcare or normalizing benefits for independents. What I want to do is create a context for thinking about benefits in a different way.
I was told once by an HR representative at a company I was contracted with as a content writer, that wages, health insurance, paid time off, etc. were just standard. Ubiquitous. He was going around asking people what would make their experience of coming to work better in, admittedly more subjective ways. I think that if we can work through issues of fair compensation for value, getting people and employers to think about the value they are providing beyond a job description, and get traditional benefits out of the workplace, we can begin to think about underlying issues that are just as important but often go unexamined.
In another article for the TiiQu Journal, I touched on the why of independent work. In his book Why We Work, Barry Schwartz explores that question poignantly. One of the things he has spoken on, is the idea that we create institutions around the “idea technology” or, in other words, that culturally we create ways of thinking and believing that shape how we view ourselves. Nothing new there. However, I believe the rise of the gig economy is significant for this reason. We don’t have to believe the definitions of what our purpose is created by corporate or economic institutions. Some choose freelancing mostly out of need or simple lack of options, but I think that the increasing trend tells us that people are coming to a new understanding about what working means, or who they are as people who work. To me, we are touching concepts that are ages old and fundamental to being. Ok. Back to that ski pass.
To me, the idea of giving someone the benefit of a free pass to an activity they enjoy is recognizing that there is value in pursuing a way of living—a way of being—that actually substantiates a set of actions, creating, building, relating, all informed by—and growing out of—the human condition. Living gives way to the act of work, rather than working being the means to surviving (just getting a paycheck). It is possible for people to live their lives, raise children, take trips, seek new experiences, actually want to learn new things, and still add real, lasting value to others, to contribute to a collective mission that accomplishes something great. It may well be time for us to stop living under the tyranny of the clock—or a profit margin. While certainly important, money is not necessarily a good motivator. Incentivizing people’s need to feel a sense of security and balance creates more angst and fear and instability. Independents have to work very hard to craft any kind of consistency in income and benefits, yet this way of working is on the rise, and not just out of necessity, but increasingly out of choice.
In a recent book I picked up at the library, I’ll Push You by Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray took a 500-mile pilgrimmage on the Camino De Santiago or “Way of St. James.” Justin happened to be in a wheelchair. While I certainly recommend the read, what struck me most was the answer Patrick’s boss gave when he asked for the time off. He could have it on the condition that the journey got filmed, so that others could share in the journey of hope and adventure.
Affirmation, joy, willingness to share life, build trust and relationship even among the strangers that are your co-workers, can foster a sense of living that supersedes the urgency of our manufactured routines. Without neglecting to deal with the real need for people to make a living, be safe and healthy, let’s add to that our commitment to genuinely care about each other and this world we have responsibility to care for. If your an employer, go kick your employees out for day to go ski (or do Yoga). If you’re working with an independent, recognize their value beyond the contract fee, and add a little bonus, or, in my case, a package of nice coffee will do nicely, thank you.
