Replying to Resort/Mountain Employees: Is this a Standard Procedure?

A friend of mine works full-time year round in the admin department (not as a liftie or seasonal) for a mountain in the northeast. Yesterday they went to pick up their pass because the mountain is opening up and she was told she was going to have to wait. She asked how long until she could get her pass and the response was "I don't know, it is a management decision, last year it was around Christmas." She asked her supervisor about this and their response was "it is just the way they do things around here, last year I had to buy a ticket to ski with my family right before Christmas." So now she has to buy full price ("no discounts") tickets until management decides to give out the employee passes. Is this typical of most mountains? Has anyone else had an experience like this? To me it makes absolutely zero sense and is a complete failure by upper management. Especially because a pass was touted as part of the incentive package when she took the job. I would be really interested in some input from other resort employees. Thanks for the help!