Promoted to Funeral Director
To read about how I got into this industry, check out my last blog post here.
Trigger warning: some emotional topics including pregnancy loss.
After working as a funeral arranger for a whole year, I was suddenly asked to step up and become a funeral director, to cover a brief period of staff sickness. I was told it would be for at least a month; I ended up being funeral director for a year.
At first, I received a step up pay bonus. During this time, I still worked as an arranger at my previous branch just one day a week, while two part-time arrangers covered the other four days. It was a chaotic setup to have three arrangers covering one funeral home, but it was the only option during a time of low staff levels.
In my four days a week as funeral director, I conducted all of the 'contract' funerals: services, cremations, and burials on behalf of the hospital and social care. These are emotionally difficult funerals to work with, as they range from taking care of people who have no family, to trying to arrange something special for families who don't have the funds, and includes conducting a large number of baby funerals for expecting parents who have miscarried. However, due to the fact that these funerals are paid for by the NHS and Adult Social Care, they tend to be basic and therefore manageable for a new funeral director. The challenges, instead, were the sheer quantity of funerals, the difficult emotions, and transitioning to a new role.
I learnt an insane amount in the three and a half months I ended up directing contract funerals. I got to grips with the basics of funeral directing, but didn't spend any time arranging with families, or conducting complex tailored funerals, due to the nature of the contracts. I saw things from the other side—working closely with a funeral arranger instead of being the funeral arranger. When issues arose at funerals, I had the realisation that it was my responsibility to sort them.
Back at my previous funeral home, where I had been the full-time arranger and still worked in the office on Wednesdays, we were crazily busy and the funeral director was about to retire. Naturally, I applied for the position, having been closely involved with that branch for a few months and wanting my step up to become permanent. Amazingly, I got the job. I was officially, permanently, a funeral director. Not just temporarily covering staff sickness. I wasn't the sole contract funeral director anymore; I would be arranging and conducting tailored funerals with many components and nuances that families had paid through the roof for. My job role was changed and I started to receive a new pay.
With this came many new responsibilities, including being on-call every five weeks to take phone calls, organise removals, and facilitate visits on evenings and weekends. I don't think I realised just how intense this role would be, until I was thrown in at the deep end. I found myself funeral director in one of the busiest branches in Leeds, during the busiest period we would see all year, with no full-time funeral arranger, only limited experience being the arranger there myself, and to make matters worse we were in the middle of a nation-wide cyber attack on the company. One of the two part-time arrangers who had been covering had to go back to her own branch. Therefore, I only had an arranger present Mondays and Tuesdays 9am till 2pm—the rest of the week it was just me doing both roles. It was really tough. We eventually hired a new, full-time funeral arranger, but for a number of weeks she was in training. This was the rockiest start to a new job I have ever experienced. I made it through and somehow amongst all that, managed to learn how to be a decent funeral director.
Over the next few months, the funeral home generally remained busy, and my work remained cut out for me. Our new funeral arranger moved to a different branch, and I started working with a different new starter, who also needed more training. We made it work, kept our heads above the water, and I made sure every funeral was a success, even if that meant lots of overtime and constant running around like a headless chicken.
The one year total I spent as funeral director in Leeds taught me so many things about the job, the industry, and myself. I adapted in the face of chaos and relied on myself and other busy colleagues to train me. I learnt on the job and kept a busy funeral home afloat oftentimes all on my own. I never once let the quality of my work be reduced by stress or heavy workload.
And despite all the above, I still loved it. It's such a rewarding job to carry out. I felt the hard work pay off every time a family thanked us and said we'd provided the perfect goodbye, celebrating a life the right way, and providing a dignified closure. I am immensely proud of myself for all I achieved in one year, and grateful to all my colleagues who helped me along the way.
Having received this promotion with better pay, I was able to start saving money for the first time in my life and work towards my life-long dream of spending a year in Australia. Just as I reached my two year anniversary working in funeralcare, I applied for a 12 month career break which I will cover in my next blog post.
It's still just the beginning of my career. I'll be returning to my role after my year away, and can see funeralcare playing a large part in my future.