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"fee technicians — the people who collect money at park entrances and campgrounds — who were two months into the hiring process"

What? It takes two months+ to hire a ticket seller? Ridiculous.

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Those are actually difficult hires to make. Huge number of low-quality applicants, but the standards for park employees are actually quite high, and admin tries to hire for passion which helps with retention and sustaining their unique culture (imo park staff are by and large excellent folks and most have impressive backgrounds relative to their position.) The immediately tangible upshot to this approach is retention, lots of those "booth jockeys" return many years in a row, or grow into admin/ranger roles.

Staff morale and visitor experience will suffer if the careful selection process is eased, and retention woes will probably cause a measurable fiscal impact to operational budgets once the passion-hire cohort churns out.

Selecting for passion takes time. It's the same when you're hiring to build a company with an exceptional culture.

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