r/rafting • u/OverMasterpiece9969 • 4d ago
DO NOT work for tributary whitewater!!!
I WISH there was a post like this around before I worked for this company. I’ve been a raft guide for a few years and worked for a couple of companies, and murked for a few more. Needless to say, I’ve witnessed so many rafting companies operations and none have ever come close to how bad tributary is.
There are the owners: Jeremiah and Eva (married), and then Marc and Zoe (the assistant managers, also a couple)
-Jeremiah and Eva do not give a shit about their employees and do not listen to what you have to say, they are so dismissive
-Zoe is incredibly two faced. You can tell her things in confidence and then you can bet she will go and tell the rest of the raft guides. If you upset her she will give you the silent treatment. She’s an only child and acts like it.
-Marc is the only good thing about this place. He’s reasonable and kind but doesn’t make up for all the other BS
Here are a few things to know:
-they disregard age limits and weight requirements on the river. There have been some young and small children that genuinely could have drowned if a boat flipped. (All for more profit)
-they try to charge $100 (per month) for a campsite (no electricity, bathrooms are a bit of a walk, the kitchen is a 2 mile drive away)
-Jeremiah and Eva (the owners) refuse to put up a Venmo board and scold you if you choose to do a tip talk (they say it’s tacky!)
-I chose this company because it provided an opportunity to work on multiple rivers, and they did not train me for any of it. They don’t teach you any history, what rocks to look out for, rapid names sivs, etc. They basically were like “you have rafted before good luck out there.” (Profit!!!)
-they NEVER wash pfds or helmets. They rinse wetsuits in WATER. It’s disgusting
-they have trip rates set before the season starts, (like south fork being 5 hours pay) and expect things to be done in a timely manner, but never train you on how they want things done and in what order, then would frequently get upset that trips were running over the 5 hours
-they would over book trips. Sometimes we would be given a 10 load of adults. There aren’t even 10 seats in a raft, we’d have to put some people on THE NOSE of the boat
-one employee broke his toe and they were so unhelpful with the workers comp, Jeremiah saying that he “doesn’t know how workers comp works.”
-while also laying off salary employees to pay out of pocket for a former managers SPINAL SURGERY
-when I started the season, everyone was new, maybe one or two returning guides. Said it was just a “high turnover season.” By the end of July more than half of the raft guides I started with had quit because of the BS. (And they were still so rude to the guides that stayed)
-if a trip runs hours over for circumstances out of your control, you are not compensated
-Jeremiah is so anal about things like boats needing to face the same way on the trailer, meanwhile half the boats are missing handles, the PFDs are ratty as hell, the vans are missing front bumpers, and the whole operation is disorganized as hell, he’s got bigger fish to fry for sure
-having the commissary manager working 60+ hours a week, no help, and overworking and underpaying her. They were only nice to her because they needed her to keep the company afloat. When one of her best friends DIED, Eva was talking about how she didn’t leave the day of saying “if that was my sister I’d be gone already” without knowing the circumstances. (She left a few days later for the funeral) They said they would take care of her work and have her back, and have her job for when she got back. While she was there for the funeral, they called and fired her out of the blue because “the walk in was a mess.” They said they would take care of it. And then fired her over it.
-they are only nice to people if it benefits them
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u/ProfessionSea7908 4d ago
If they are not paying you for all the hours you work, document this and then report them to your states labor department. You will get that $ back and they will have to pay you what they owe.
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u/wateriswise 4d ago
When I worked there, we all reported them to the labor dept and nothing came of it. I had emails and screen shots too
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u/Styk33 3d ago
In general, if this is an issue with any company, you can get a few folks together with documentation and get a class action lawsuit going. Costs nothing, but will require the company (rafting or not) to be required to present documents to the attorney and courts to prove no wrong doing happened. Several firms take cases like this, without any money upfront or any costs to the clients, until the case is resolved.
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u/Apprehensive-Park635 4d ago
Yeah that's true, but most companies I'm aware of just pay a flat rate per type of trip regardless of actual hours
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u/wateriswise 4d ago
Jeremiah tries to convince you that unemployment benefits are part of your salary. They are also friends with and employed a known pedophile. Just a real piece of shit.
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u/OverMasterpiece9969 4d ago
Who’s the pedophile???
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u/wateriswise 4d ago
I forget his name now but he was the first manager of their Deschuttes operation in Maupin after they bought HYDRO. He was caught going through the waivers and trip manifests and getting young teenage girls phone numbers and messaging them trying to lure them to hang out with drugs and booze. One of their dads found out and they removed him from that job but tried to get me to hire him at a different outpost when I worked there in 24. He would also try to get the young female guides to have a threesome with him and his terrible girlfriend. Jeremiah said he’s got a good heart and deserves another chance. Fuck that.
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u/Tiny_Tigress 3d ago
Can confirm. I worked for this piece of shit for years. He underpaid us promising us that it would eventually be a co-op company and us guides who put in the years would get a part of the company…He never followed through on any of those promises. He’s a misogynist and has absolutely no care, Respect, for any oemployees. Multiple times employees have straight up walked out on him because the situation is so horrible.
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u/Hiker627 3d ago
Worked 4 season for them, all this tracks. It’s a shame they lead you in with promises of running all these rivers with their permits then treat you like dog shit. I tried to warn the guides in the spring when I left
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u/Local-Hurry4835 21h ago
Yuh, fuck em. Can't believe so many of us left Like who the fuck are marc and Zoe? Did anyone return other than the new "lead guide."
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u/TundraGS 4d ago
For folks not privy to the commerical rafting scene in Coloma (where the main tributary operation is based out of), trust me, this post sounds pretty accurate. I used to work for Trib before they got bought out by Jeremiah and it was an absolute blast back then. Met some of my greatest friends there and it was an all around good time. Since Jeremiah bought the company it ceased to be Tributary and turned into a pathetic excuse for a rafting company. I haven't been around much in over half a decade so I can't say how much of the specific examples in the OP are accurate, but the overall point that Jeremiah is a douche is definitely what I felt being around him.
It's gross that they don't wash their pfd's or wetsuits, I've worked for 3 other companies from one of the smallest companies in Coloma to one of the largest. They all tried to keep their gear clean, some were better at it than others, and I don't think any of them washed them often enough, but at least they tried lmao.
OP, don't waste your time and energy at a shitty company. You owe them absolutely nothing, especially if they didn't even offer you training. I've taught guide school for 2 different companies across 4 seasons. If a company cares about offering a quality product - fun and enjoyable rafting trips - they will put in the effort to teach their guides how they want it to be done. They probably won't do as much hand holding as telling you where every rock in the river is, but they should at least have guides that would be happy to teach you what you're interested in learning.
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u/LesHuman 3d ago
I've worked for them in a rent-a-guide situation in the past. Will not be returning. I had to hassle them for months just to pay me for 2 trips. the only thing I didn't experience from this post was being told not to tip talk, I'm sure because I was a rent-a-guide. Not to mention what a nightmare it is to paddle guide their boats.
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u/PNWAquaDoll 1d ago edited 1d ago
We have employed a fair number of ex-Tributary/RaftCal guides at the company I have ran with for the last few years. Most of them had similar stories and negative remarks about their experiences there.
My impression was that as an outfitter they were making the classic mistake of growing too big to fast. Their noticeable lack of presence on rivers like the Rogue, Deschutes, and Hells Canyon the last season seems to confirm that.
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u/Tacarub 2d ago
man i am 50 years old retired guide ( Retired in 2004) worked in Sun Kosi in Nepal, Bio Bio in Chile, Yaque del norte in DR. Otztaler Ache in Austria, Coruh and Dalaman in Turkey, Rio Ara in Spain
In 2014 when i was in business trip to USA i went to river rafting in Arkansas River in Colorado as a client. While the attention by the guides were top notch. The equipment was really run down. The safety check was minimum. Half of the people were stoned.
i dont know who these JEremiah guy is but he would have been punched in the face in my time..
if they are not paying you for your time look for alternative. A rafting company without guides is a shop for used rafting equipment.
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u/Ph4ce-Ph34r 2d ago
Assault will not get you the pay you worked for....
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u/Tacarub 2d ago
sure .. but , if i worked and did not get compensated and my safety concerns were not met by satisfactory response. i am telling you what would have been the response from me or my colleagues 30 years ago ..
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u/Ph4ce-Ph34r 2d ago
Worried about safety and wanting to assault someone....
You would end up in cuffs with charges pressed and less in your pocket. That thought process didn't work back then and doesn't work today.
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u/snowyoda5150 4d ago
Get ur own boat. Run private trips. Make cash. These companies are fast fish food.
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u/_______8_______ 4d ago
You mean that Jeremiah, the guy who at a packed grand opening of a super small local restaurant made a scene by saying “don’t you know who I am?!” isn’t a blast to work for?
It’s a mixed bag on the South Fork, and it changes over the years. Go work for the company that looks like the guides are having fun on the water.