He's Got Other Things To Do

There's been some changes at work. Returning Employee has semi-retired. He now works just two days a week. We haven't hired a replacement yet, but I think plans are in the works to do so. We also have a new intern. He's a licensed pre-need agent, which means he can sell preplanned funerals. He also has his intern's license, so when he completes his apprenticeship and passes the National Board he can take the state test and go for his Funeral Directing and Embalming license. However, since he's so busy selling preneed and such, he's never around to help with the day to day operations. We had to wash a couple of the cars the other day, and we asked if he was going to help. We got the usual answer from the boss: "He's got other things to do." No matter what we need to do around the funeral home, he's never available to help because he's got other things to do. It's kind of frustrating, because I've been licensed since 2008, yet I'm still the one who empties the trash every morning. Oh well. What can you do?

Know Your Technology

We had a visitation this week and the family decided to scan their own photos and make their own photo slideshow. That's great, I love it when families do the work, but if you're going to do it, know how to operate your computer. They were using a Macbook, which I know absolutely nothing about. I told them we did not have the adapter to connect their Mac to our TV/monitor. So what happens? They show up with their Macbook and no adapter. I had to run out to Best Buy in the middle of visitation to get one. When I return, I tell the owner of the Macbook I have the adapter, but don't know where to connect it to her laptop and get the slideshow running. She tells me she has to call her tech guy to help her. It would have been better had they given us the photos and let us take care of it all.

New Year Resolution?

Yesterday at work my boss pulled me aside and questioned me about a family I served a few weeks ago. The total cost was around $2200 or so. This was simple cremation, no services, urn, engraving, paid obituary notices here and out of state, and extra death certificates, both for the deceased and the spouse of the deceased, to settle the estate. The family had been paying a couple of hundred dollars every few days, and about half the bill had been settled, but suddenly the payments stopped. I had ordered the engraved urn, cremated the body, ordered the extra death certificates, paid for the obituaries, etc. There is still money due to us and my boss was upset that it had not yet been collected. He told me we need to get this account settled, and was pretty harsh about it.
Now if you've read through this blog, you might see sometimes where I come in early, or stay late, or do whatever it takes to get the job done while others just sit around, slack off, come in late and leave early. So I started thinking; should I be like everyone else, showing up exactly on time or even a few minutes late every single day, get by with the minimum amount of work and no more? It's something I'm considering as a resolution.