Would you ever consider being an Undertaker?

DEFTLEFTHAND

There is actually decent money to be made in it. It doesn't require a four degree or anything.

We'd a death in our family recently and I got talking the two guys when they brought the coffin home. They were a father and son operation. I'd be like this now but I asked them and they told me that they made €90,000 profit in 2015. This is a small operation in a small town.

Can you imagine the money the big firms in the big towns and cities are making?

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

munster87

I wanted to be stone cold Steve Austin when I was younger

Tom Mann Centuria

Nice profit for end of year but depends what wage they were paying themselves throughout the year as to whether it's good or not.

biko

I would just so I could tell everyone:
See you soon mohahahaha!

hairyslug

Yeah, had looked into it but it's pretty much an apprenticeship where you need to be sponsored by a current undertaker, probably why the company stays in a family for many generations.

philstar

you're always guaranteed business

s4uv3

I'd do the bit that doesn't involve handling bodies or "getting them ready", whatever that entails.
I could do the admin bit, liasing with the family, sorting arrangements etc.

So I guess that's a no from me!

ChikiChiki

Seems like a well paid stress free job.

Sonics2k

Yeah I seriously considered it for years as a career and still do now and then, but it seems to be a fairly hard career to get into as it's usually a family run business.

Then again, it is a job for life.

Alf Stewart.

I'd be too afraid of having a sfiffie in an inappropriate place.

philstar

hairyslug wrote: »

Yeah, had looked into it but it's pretty much an apprenticeship where you need to be sponsored by a current undertaker, probably why the company stays in a family for many generations.

maybe some are reluctant to take someone from outside the family..just in case they start a rival firm of their own a few years down the line??

sadie06

I watched a documentary on Undertaking behind the scenes. It's incredibly difficult to get into. A fairly long apprenticeship required to learn the ropes fully, and then massive expense if you are starting a business from scratch..

The cars required are hugely expensive even second hand, and it would also take years to build up a reputation.

It is lucrative though, but tough work.

Super-Rush

Is it not a dying trade these days?

Tom Mann Centuria

Super-Rush wrote: »

Is it not a dying trade these days?

Yeah and competition is stiffs.

DEFTLEFTHAND

They're on the ball though these guys. We were given exact times for everything.

The coffin was closed and sealed in the house at 6.25 for the removal. Lifted into the hearse and driven down to the church for exactly 7pm. I checked my phone as we were pulling in. They arrived on the second.

StringerBell

It is something I have looked in to, can be a tough career to get in to but once your in its a job for life and with a good reputation you will never be short of business.

Grayson

This is an interesting read. It's about a book written by one of the mitford sisters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Way_of_Death

It's about hwo the whole funeral industry takes advantage of grief to upsell. It's decades old now but still worth a read.

DEFTLEFTHAND

StringerBell wrote: »

It is something I have looked in to, can be a tough career to get in to but once your in its a job for life and with a good reputation you will never be short of business.

Very family based I'd say.

Sons take after their father. Many of these local firms in Ireland have been operating for decades.

Graces7

I remember decades ago when the undertaker for my Mum was driving me to see her ; when I identified her they had made no attempt to hide the terrible head injury and it was really upsetting me.. I asked how he could do that job and he said it was a vocation.

Coping with the families and with badly injured bodies?

When i was on the island, one man would be taxi driver, ambulance driver AND undertaker. There was a huge scandal one day as he had come over on the ferry in the hearse, with a body in it and his shopping alongside the coffin in full view..,

kylith

The dead don't scare me and I wouldn't have a problem working in an undertaker's. What I would have a problem with is upselling to grieving families. The price of coffins is shocking - over a grand for a box that's either going to be stuck in a hole in the ground or incinerated, a disgraceful amount.

hairyslug

kylith wrote: »

The dead don't scare me and I wouldn't have a problem working in an undertaker's. What I would have a problem with is upselling to grieving families. The price of coffins is shocking - over a grand for a box that's either going to be stuck in a hole in the ground or incinerated, a disgraceful amount.

I paid 800 for each if my parents coffins, both were cremated. It may sound petty but in the UK you have the option to rent a coffin for the ceremony and a very basic ply coffin is used for the cremation, saving quite a lot of money, I'm surprised noone has started doing it over here.

The Backwards Man

It's a pure cnut of a job for getting money off people, one of the worst actually, as hard as that is to believe.

For that reason, no.

kylith

hairyslug wrote: »

I paid 800 for each if my parents coffins, both were cremated. It may sound petty but in the UK you have the option to rent a coffin for the ceremony and a very basic ply coffin is used for the cremation, saving quite a lot of money, I'm surprised noone has started doing it over here.

That's a better way to go about it. Even €800 is a shocking amount of money.

I think it was Penn & Teller who did an expose on undertakers in the US, and they push grieving families to spend thousands on a coffin by guilting them with 'Granny deserves the very best'.

DEFTLEFTHAND

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It's a pure cnut of a job for getting money off people, one of the worst actually, as hard as that is to believe.

For that reason, no.

I thought they usually get paid by the deceased's solicitor from their estate. When the will goes to Probate.

9or10

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Seems like a well paid stress free job.

I would think it has its moments.

Kids funerals must be horrendous. It's not always poor old uncle Billy.

judeboy101

Grave digging is way more lucrative. Cash in hand business, 5hrs to dig 2 to fill two man team pulling 400 per job minimum. A goid flu season and you can clear 2k a week easy

Outlaw Pete

Alf Stewart. wrote: »

I'd be too afraid of having a sfiffie in an inappropriate place.

When you say "inappropriate place" - do you mean a corpse's vagina?

Brian?

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

There is actually decent money to be made in it. It doesn't require a four degree or anything.

We'd a death in our family recently and I got talking the two guys when they brought the coffin home. They were a father and son operation. I'd be like this now but I asked them and they told me that they made €90,000 profit in 2015. This is a small operation in a small town.

Can you imagine the money the big firms in the big towns and cities are making?

45k a year each is hardly taking it in.

Graces7

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I thought they usually get paid by the deceased's solicitor from their estate. When the will goes to Probate.

They did in the Uk when my mother was killed. Maybe so they do not have to hassle families? I never saw a bill and was grateful for that although I did think that it also stopped grieving families not paying.

Jimbob1977

Very dependable profession

They're the last person to let you down......

DEFTLEFTHAND

judeboy101 wrote: »

Grave digging is way more lucrative. Cash in hand business, 5hrs to dig 2 to fill two man team pulling 400 per job minimum. A goid flu season and you can clear 2k a week easy

They have a tradition in our small town where you give the gravediggers whiskey up at the house. No charge is layed upon the bereaved family.

We'll all do it for each other when the occasion arises

Conor Bourke

Graces7 wrote: »

I remember decades ago when the undertaker for my Mum was driving me to see her ; when I identified her they had made no attempt to hide the terrible head injury and it was really upsetting me.. I asked how he could do that job and he said it was a vocation.

If you were formally identifying your mum's remains to the police/guards, there was unfortunately nothing that could be done to disguise the wound if a post mortem was going to be carried out. If the undertakers were bringing you to see her laid out after all the formalities and they still hadn't done anything, that's a different story.

I work in end of life care but an undertakers life wouldn't be for me. As was pointed out, I know well how difficult for them to get paid for their work and they're entrenched in every aspect of death- all the grizzly and gruesome bits of crime, accidents, etc. Nah thanks.

Dr Crayfish

Much respect to undertakers, a noble trade. I can't see how you'd get into it or be comfortable with it if you weren't born into it though.

Rubberlegs

As a child I always wanted to work in a funeral home, I always thought it would be a very peaceful job. I still would like the element of helping families through the funeral arrangements etc though I would have to draw the line at embalming, I doubt I would have the stomach for it. The undertaker who looked after my Dad couldn't have been more professional. It's a family business, I remember his father and grandfather before him, and his wife is the enbalmer. As professional as he was he cracked jokes and told us funny stories from other funerals. He brightened up what was a really tough time, and I will still remember something he said the odd time and smile. I have a lot of respect for what they do, it can't be easy at times.

Graces7

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

They have a tradition in our small town where you give the gravediggers whiskey up at the house. No charge is layed upon the bereaved family.

We'll all do it for each other when the occasion arises

May such supportive traditions last forever

/ Like when my mother was killed and all the houses in the avenue closed their curtains to show respect.

CarrickMcJoe

Got to know an undertaker and said once, you must be owed thousands?
Her reply was, try tens of thousands!

It's also a 365 days a year job and 24 hrs on call. Burying children will always have some affect too.

FTA69

Lad I worked with on site used to be one, apparently they have to go in and remove the body from wherever it lay after the cops etc have ascertained what happened. He told me once they were called out to remove a poor man who had hanged himself from a stairs. He told the youngfella with him to hold the corpse while he cut it down. As he cut the rope, apparently the body doubled over on top of the young lad and sort of gawked or expelled it's stomach contents all over him due to gas build up.

It was honestly one of the most disturbing stories I've heard, you'd want to be made of certain stuff for that lark.

Streppy

My cousin is an undertaker with his wife's family business. He has some brilliant stories to tell but one always stuck in my mind.

An 18 year lad hung himself about three years ago, typical suicide in rural Ireland. The deceased's girlfriend went to see him in the mortuary one day with the dead's phone in her hand, she proceeded to pick up the dead's hand and unlocked the phone via it thumb print recognition system. My cousin and his father-in-law were absolutely shocked.

The Backwards Man

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I thought they usually get paid by the deceased's solicitor from their estate. When the will goes to Probate.

Doesn't always work like that though, you can't only bury the people that have their affairs in order

Capt'n Midnight

Sonics2k wrote: »

Yeah I seriously considered it for years as a career and still do now and then, but it seems to be a fairly hard career to get into as it's usually a family run business.

Then again, it is a job for life.

or death

DEFTLEFTHAND

They witness some bad scenes alright I'd imagine. Having to deal with bodies which were dead for weeks for instance, that must be really nasty.

I was talking to one of the gravediggers and he told me that he often came across coffins while digging a plot for a double grave.

Now days apparently they cement over the 12ft at the 6ft mark on a family plot.

Once the shovel hits the cement they know they've reached their target.

Capt'n Midnight

sadie06 wrote: »

I watched a documentary on Undertaking behind the scenes. It's incredibly difficult to get into. A fairly long apprenticeship required to learn the ropes fully, and then massive expense if you are starting a business from scratch..

The cars required are hugely expensive even second hand, and it would also take years to build up a reputation.

It is lucrative though, but tough work.

That's what they want you to think.

Take a look at this documentary series which lets you into many of the industry secrets.

http://www.tg4.ie/en/player/home/?pid=5086998059001

Charlie and Vincie get a grant from the Údarás to build a crematorium.

_Brian

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Seems like a well paid stress free job.

Stress free me hole.
If you talk to an undertaker for a while you'll realise its fate from stress and problem free. Have you ever been in a house where the corpse starts to oozes fluids, some stress there.
How about exhumation, lifting a 10 year dead lad and reboximg him for DNA tests.

It's like a lot of jobs, from a distance it looks grand, but scratch the surface and it's no way easy.

At €90k a year for a family business, so that's maybe two houses to fed from it. Now your doing it for €45k a year !!

Not for double that would I do it.

infogiver

kylith wrote: »

That's a better way to go about it. Even €800 is a shocking amount of money.

I think it was Penn & Teller who did an expose on undertakers in the US, and they push grieving families to spend thousands on a coffin by guilting them with 'Granny deserves the very best'.

It is a business all the same, not a charity.
I stood by while my sister in law picked a coffin from a catalogue for my mother in law.
The first 2 coffins, the cheapest, she rejected because the colour didn't match the decor in the living room where the remains were going to be reposing, or the flowers she had ordered.
I'm not making this up.
Afterwards when perusing the undertakers bill, my father in law remarked that he would recommend to any other grieving family that the least grief stricken family member should be assigned the making of the arrangements with little or no input from anyone else.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Some people here said its an incredibly hard job to get into to, maybe that's a country thing. But I train with two undertakers and they're always offering me part time work.

Tbh I couldn't do it. I'm one of those people who stand against the wall in a funeral room and view the deceased from across the room!.

I've another mate who is a mortuary technician, he got into it after working as security in the hospital (a major Dublin hospital). He replied to a job advertisement, and now he cuts up people for a living.

I met him in Templebar when he was out for a works Christmas drinks and a lad I worked with years ago is in training with him, like my mate he got in through the job being advertised.

They all say the work is handy enough, although the mortuary techi mate says fat people can be very hard work.

The undertakers told me at first I'd just being taking the coffins in and out of the home, into and out of the church etc and working with the bodies would follow naturally. But they also say they've a high staff turn over because its not a job for everyone and that's why they're always looking for new staff.

So I'd say in Dublin, if you're interested apply to a funeral home for part time work and take it from there.

judeboy101

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

They have a tradition in our small town where you give the gravediggers whiskey up at the house. No charge is layed upon the bereaved family.

We'll all do it for each other when the occasion arises

Most undertakers like to use gravediggers they can depend on to dig a proper grave that wont collapse and will look tidy. The amount of uncle joes and cousin michaels who cant build a box for the dirt or line a grave.

infogiver

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

They're on the ball though these guys. We were given exact times for everything.

The coffin was closed and sealed in the house at 6.25 for the removal. Lifted into the hearse and driven down to the church for exactly 7pm. I checked my phone as we were pulling in. They arrived on the second.

A scenario had arisen over the years where the "arrangements" were not even loosely being adhered to
Callers kept calling to the house and the closing of the coffin was delayed by up to 2 hours or more
Meanwhile a priest, alterservers and yet more mourners were waiting in a church for the reception of the remains
In the end it was decided between the church and the undertakers that a firmer approach be taken and that has worked out fine.

indioblack

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

There is actually decent money to be made in it. It doesn't require a four degree or anything.

We'd a death in our family recently and I got talking the two guys when they brought the coffin home. They were a father and son operation. I'd be like this now but I asked them and they told me that they made €90,000 profit in 2015. This is a small operation in a small town.

Can you imagine the money the big firms in the big towns and cities are making?

The small town I live in has one undertaker.
He's always smiling - always.
It's unnerving.

LynnGrace

No, it would not be a job for me. I have great respect for those who do it. As other posters have alluded to, and in my experience too, their professionalism and kindness is so important to a grieving family.

Hammer89

I would but I can't roll my heads up into my head.