Would you ever consider being an Undertaker?

DEFTLEFTHAND · 07-01-2017 11:30AM #1

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 · 07-01-2017 11:31AM

This post has been deleted.

munster87 · 07-01-2017 11:31AM

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

Tom Mann Centuria · 07-01-2017 11:33AM

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 · 07-01-2017 11:35AM

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

hairyslug · 07-01-2017 11:35AM

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 · 07-01-2017 11:36AM

you're always guaranteed business

s4uv3 · 07-01-2017 11:36AM

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 · 07-01-2017 11:37AM

Seems like a well paid stress free job.

Sonics2k · 07-01-2017 11:43AM

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. · 07-01-2017 11:48AM

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

philstar · 07-01-2017 11:50AM

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 · 07-01-2017 11:56AM

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 · 07-01-2017 11:58AM

Is it not a dying trade these days?

Tom Mann Centuria · 07-01-2017 12:00PM

Super-Rush wrote: »

Is it not a dying trade these days?

Yeah and competition is stiffs.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 07-01-2017 12:00PM

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 · 07-01-2017 12:00PM

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 · 07-01-2017 12:02PM

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 · 07-01-2017 12:16PM

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 · 07-01-2017 12:46PM

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 · 07-01-2017 12:55PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:11PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:14PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:19PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:19PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:22PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:24PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:27PM

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? · 07-01-2017 01:28PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:29PM

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 · 07-01-2017 01:29PM

Very dependable profession

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

Would you ever consider being an Undertaker?

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