That's exactly it, bumming and working for vail sucks, but an office job has more perks than they tell you.  There are all kinds of discounts on hotels and great vacation deals for a full time year-round employee through other companies associated with Vail.
Vail is still pretty cheap as a company though; emplyees had to pay to ski at A-basin on spring weekends this year because vail would not fork over the 10 dollars a day that A-basin charges them for Epic pass users to ski at their mountain.  They would, however, pay 10 a day for the people who bought epic passes and did not have employee passes.  Also, I found this out after taking an hour long bus to A-bay and getting through the semi-crowded lift line, where I was called out by a liftie and had to exit the line.  Pretty annoying.
As far as ski bumming goes though, most shops that sell things in any way ski related will give you a pass, it may not be an epic pass, but unless you have a car, you don't leave summit that often.