26+ Pros and Cons of Being a Mortician (Explained)

A person whose work prepares a dead body for burying and managing funerals. They are often asked to perform jobs like casketing, dressing, and cosseting, to arrange and direct funeral services.

Such as interviewing family or another authorized person to arrange details, coordinating transportation of the body to the mortuary, aiding with the selection of officials for religious rites, selecting pallbearers, and providing transportation for mourners.

Advantages of being a Mortician	Disadvantages of being a Mortician
Low Educational Requirements	Often have to work at night
Comfortable Pay Grade	One has to work many extra hours
Good Job Prospects	Poor work-life balance
Self-Employment	Society often does not give the appreciation mortician deserve
Working with people	Job has some stigma
An important job for society	Morticians don’t have a high social standing
Mostly work indoors	Working as a mortician is emotionally demanding

Advantages of being a Mortician

Low Educational Requirements

There is no mandatory educational requirement for becoming a Mortician. The person must be 18 years or older and have at least a matriculation.

This comparatively lower barrier makes morticians an appealing career option for individuals who want to start their careers as soon as possible. Though one needs basic training, a graduate will always be preferred.

Comfortable Pay Grade

According to online market surveys, the average income for a mortician is approximately USD 54,000. It is much higher than the national average income, making it a well-paid job. However, an experienced and well-established mortician may earn up to USD 91,000.

The potential to earn for morticians is much higher as compared to equivalent fields requiring a similar level of education and job commitment.

Good Job Prospects

Everybody dies; death is a sad reality of life, but morticians will always be required. Irrespective of the state of the economy or where they live, a mortician will make a liveable wage.

Moreover, this career is not very competitive, making it easier to start and continue a successful business. Therefore, a career as a mortician is a better way to establish job security.

Self-Employment

Some morticians are working under a boss, the majority of morticians own and run their own business. Therefore they have greater flexibility in making their own work schedule, rate of pay, and location.

Most individuals like this independence, and particularly if one has unusual family or personal obligations.

Working with people

Most people believe that morticians work only with the dead; instead, morticians have to spend a big part of the day working with people.

While working as a mortician one learns the ability to be strong and compassionate, interpersonal communication skills, as they spend their time working with the families of deceased persons.

A mortician gets the opportunity to socialize with people and to assist them during their tough times.

An important job for society

Morticians do a very important job for society. One cannot imagine a world without morticians, as there will be no one for your loved ones when they die, as well as no one to manage funerals.

A mortician cares about the entire funeral and they make sure that it takes place with proper dignity.

Therefore, a mortician does a great job for everyone, even though their work is not commonly seen with respect as it should have been by most people.

Mostly work indoors

As a mortician, one generally is able to work indoors for most of their workday. Though one will rarely have to leave their workplace indoor if it comes to the collection of the body and one will also have to do much preparation work outdoors.

But even so, other people have to work outdoors throughout the day and regularly have to deal with unpleasant weather conditions. One will be able to work all of their time protected by their four walls in a rather cozy environment.

Disadvantages of being a Mortician

Often have to work at night

A major problem with being a mortician is that they will often have to work at night. Moreover, one will have to prepare the corpse for funerals that are scheduled for the next day.

It means that one will have to work while most other people dream about nice things and work at night. It is also really annoying since they will often not have time to meet up with their favorite person.

Consequently, working at night adversely affects our quality of sleep and most morticians often experience serious sleeping problems during their career as their sleeping cycle will be altered.

Nice sleep is crucial for humans to remain healthy in their life and they as a mortician have to deal with serious adverse health issues.

One has to work many extra hours

In the course of a career, one has to work many extra hours as a mortician. Moreover, people will never care about their working conditions if they want a funeral to take place immediately, and even though one may have done much work, nobody will actually care about it.

In reality, people care about everything that goes according to their plan and that they can say goodbye to their loved ones in a dignified manner. In turn, one might have to work long hours every day during the busy season of the year.

Poor work-life balance

As one will have to work many extra hours and often have to work at night, morticians will have a very poor work-life balance in general. One often may not be able to meet their favorite people after work.

Moreover one will be very tired throughout the day due to their lack of good sleep and this will greatly lower their overall quality of life.

It will hamper personal life as one will often not have enough time to spend with their family and will often also wake their loved ones up at midnight after one reaches their home from work.

Society often does not give the appreciation mortician deserve

Though people will often generally appreciate their work, they will often not be able to give this appreciation as they are much overwhelmed with their losses and don’t have any emotional capacities left for thanking morticians for what they are doing.

It means that one will often go to work and people will not show them as much appreciation as one might like to see. Depending on their character and their mindset, this may become quite frustrating in the long run.

Job has some stigma

A downside to working as a mortician often has to deal with some sort of social stigma. As morticians will always have to deal with people who are dead, many people who do not know better will blame them for their losses.

Generally, morticians are not the most appreciated people and one should therefore make sure that they are able to deal with bad comments.

Morticians don’t have a high social standing

One will not have the highest social status as a mortician. Though society will often appreciate their work, one will still not have a similar social standing as a doctor, governor or other people who can save lives.

Therefore, one may also not make as much wealth as other professionals and a combination of a much lower salary and a low social status can also amplify difficulties for one when it comes to finding a spouse.

Working as a mortician is emotionally demanding

Because of the unpleasant work, one has to do, the work of a mortician is always mentally and emotionally demanding.

Moreover, many morticians even develop psychological or mental issues in the course of their career as they just do not deal with all these things in an emotionally healthy environment.

Working as a mortician, one will also have to be quite flexible. Very often, schedules change without prior notice and one will have to work longer hours to get all the work done in time so that the funeral takes place in a proper manner.