Funeral Director/Embalmer - Working conditions
Kaihautū/Kaiwhakapaipai Tūpāpaku
Working Conditions
Funeral directors/embalmers work in offices, workshops and mortuaries attached to funeral homes. They often have to travel to hospitals, private homes, churches and other places of worship, cemeteries, graveyards and crematoriums, and may be required to travel to accident sites to transfer bodies.
Funeral directors/embalmers handle dead bodies, and as a result the work may be physically and emotionally demanding.
Funeral directors often have to work in churches and other places of worship
Equipment
Equipment funeral directors/embalmers may use includes:
- hearses
- caskets
- screwdrivers, hammers and nails for attaching handles to caskets
- trolleys and stretchers
- chemicals such as formaldehyde (a chemical preservative)
- surgical equipment
- cosmetics
- audiovisual and music equipment
- computers and general office equipment.
Funeral directors uses hearses to transport bodies
Machine used to prepare human bodies for cremation
Hours
Funeral directors/embalmers work regular hours, but often have to work evenings or weekends. They also work duty weeks, during which they are on call 24 hours a day, every day.
"We work on a 24-hour roster, and every week we have turns being on call 24 hours a day."
Wade Hall - Funeral Director/Embalmer
Contact with people
Funeral directors/embalmers work independently. They interact with a wide variety of people, including other funeral directors/embalmers and clients, many of whom have lost family members or people close to them.
Funeral directors/embalmers also have contact with:
- clergy
- cemetery and crematorium staff
- trade suppliers such as florists and caterers
- local and central government staff, including staff from overseas embassies
- the police
- lawyers
- insurance people.
