I'm only on episode 3 but I'm in Denver so I'm hooked on the series and how it's playing out.
I don't think any of them came off looking good in that conversation. She framed the rationale for higher pay poorly. Brian came off brodouchy in justifying the current salary.
$35K a year is low considering how enormously expensive it is to live in Summit County. On that salary she's only renting a room in a house - and very likely not in Breck but a long commute away - which means high commute costs - gas and food in the high country is more expensive than Denver metro.
I do think given the all cash nature of the business, the legal risks and rules unique to the industry, and heightened risk of robbery, which Brian essentially refuses to acknowledge, combined with the high cost of living: a higher manager wage is warranted.
That being said - there is always the intersection of skills, market rate, and labor availability. Brian and Caitlin are right that other people would take the job for that rate. But they're also going to be essentially investing their time and money training the managers to eventually work for the competition if they can go elsewhere with the experience for more money.
What makes Brian a bit of a hypocrite is he says Breck is known for bad customer service and he wants to break that perception and be great in customer service. To do that: you hire, train and retain, and compensate accordingly, the people that will provide that level of service dependably under any circumstance. If you go for the low rate - you risk high turnover and never building a mature staff that provides that rock solid dependable level of service. So it's a business decision and what balance you really want between service, staff, and profits.
I was a little surprised at how fast B&C moved from "nice ambitious entrepreneurs" to a acting a bit douchy entitled as soon as the cash flow went positive. I would have focused on building a cushion and diversifying for some income from other sources (Caitlin mentions their credit is trashed from the startup costs). For as hard as they worked, and the plan they had, they seemed to get caught up way to quickly.
And then there's Gary Gallagher who moved to Breck in 2005 from Boulder (where he moved in 1996 he's a former NYC investment banker) and was all "our town" "our brand". I'm thinking "you rich jerks are what ruined the great local not terribly expensive place Breck (and Boulder) used to be in the 80's". 😎
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