Pros
Free coffee - all you can drink but you won't to drink much its the cheap stuff. Otherwise, RUN... DON'T WALK. If you're unfortunately already in… GET, GET, GET, OUT, OUT, OUT! You will meet some awesome families that will truly appreciate your work on their behalf; however, they will be paying a ton of money for this of which you will get very, very little. This is a great job if you would otherwise be volunteering (like at a homeless shelter – where you could be eventually) because you will be making pretty much just minimum wage when everything is said and done. What they promise, they taketh away at some point. I am convinced that they have developed logarithms that allow them to promise the most, while paying their counselors the absolute minimum to keep themselves in business and getting filthy rich. I envision SCI/”Dignity” executives lighting Cuban cigars with $100 bills while laughing hysterically how they are getting away with ripping off their customers and their cemetery & funeral home employees. If you have no conscience and can sleep at night while literally stealing from others, you will do well here. Otherwise, if you own a home expect to find yourself fighting to keep your home in foreclosure court or if you rent, expect to be evicted at some point. It truly is that bad. I wish that I had seen some of the Glassdoor reviews before I started working there. Once you’re in, it is so hard to get out. You will want to look for another job almost immediately but with the 60-70 hours you will be working a week so that your family will at least have medical insurance, you will never have the time. Seriously, I don’t know you but I please do not take a job with them, it really is that bad.
Cons
There are so many but here goes. Families that have been burned before, either by receiving horrible customer service and/or others whom you will be the 10th person to call them to come in for a free Personal Planning Guide sales pitch, will hate you. Local funeral directors, many of whom worked for SCI Dignity Memorial when they first started their careers will hate you too for whatever higher cost or new rule you will impose on their families right at their time of need, will hate you even more. Once you realize how you are being taken advantage of will hate yourself the most. You will be asked to pressure people to buy at all times, right when they are trying to get a loved one at rest, again a few days after the interment when you trick them to come back to get "important paperwork", anytime that they need to come into the office when visiting a loved (even just to go to the bathroom,) any of their contrived family or community events, after a service request was finally (but poorly) completed after submitting a dozen or more times (and will only finally get done if you have a complete sobbing breakdown while they are trying to sell another family there.) You will be asked to suck every penny out of families in the spirit "of protecting your families." You will sell many things that will be exempt from commission and/or board volume and whenever you manage to build up any sales volume, it will eventually be taken away when one of the never ending rules are invoked. You will think that you will finally have a nice paycheck only to cry when you see your check. The pressure and stress to make a family burial go well will be intense because there are never enough cemetery staff to get the job done right. There will be unending paperwork that needs to be completed (of which you will not get paid because this is a 100% COMMISSION ONLY job. If you receive minimum wage pay one week because of federal law, they will take that amount out of your next paycheck. The turnover will be horrendous, I worked in an office of 5 sales counselors and in the 4+ years that I was there, over 25 sales people came and went. Other counselors will steal from you, you will never get your messages if whomever took the call had reason to believe that there was potential sale (“Oh, she’s not around but I can help you. Let me pencil you in for tomorrow at 2pm is that a good time for you?”) If the call is just a complaint or a follow up on a service request like “where is my loved one’s memorial marker” or “why are there only weeds on my loved one’s grave and the settled dirt looks like you can crawl in the grave?” you will always get those calls. If you are out in the cemetery helping another family because their service request was never done, they will steal that customer from you – or at least write them up an overpriced floral program or sell them a most-unlikely-to-ever-occur Travel & Relocation Protection Plan. While you are out doing an unpaid blind check (a procedure necessary before a burial) another counselor will take your pre-need buying family that walked in the door while you happened to be out of the office. Oh, and be sure to dress warm even when you are in dress clothes (which is always) because it is very cold when you have to scrap several inches of snow and ice off of a grave marker for the lot check or to help a visitor find a loved ones grave site. Your days will start early for interments and end late making required sales calls to people who will not want to talk to you or will be mad because you happened to call on the anniversary of their loved ones death.