Posting from the U.S.: About 4 months ago I accepted a position through a temp agency that paid 16 dollars an hour. My job, as originally described in the interview, was as a crematory operator with minimal amounts of computer work involved – “data entry, ten minutes here and there”. The minimal amount of computer work actually turned out to be part time office work; calling funeral homes and extensive sensitive data entry. I actually have a dual monitor setup and my own desk/cubicle that I need to do the job, plus I had to learn excel.
Anyway. As time went on, my job duties kept expanding; I was told I'd have to use the company vehicle to take trips to the medical examiner's office to pickup bodies on occasion (though they have yet to ask me to do this, I know the other guy does it regularly) make trips (presumably in my own vehicle) to drop off human cremains at funeral homes (one being 30+ miles away), and a whole lot of hands on with dead bodies. For example, one part of my job is to dress the bodies in hospital gowns after they've been embalmed + clean up after the embalming is finished, which can be pretty graphic depending on the case. Imagine bodily fluids and bits of skin stuck to an embalming table. Yup, that's my job to clean up. As well, I am customer service, because we do pets as well, which means I am face to face with grieving pet owners on a regularly basis and supposed to console them. On average, I deal with 2-3 of these “pet families” per day when we're busy (which is often). On average, I am expected to inspect, receive, document, and cremate 4-6 bodies a day/night. In addition to my 40 hours per week, it is mandatory to work two Saturdays a month alternating with the other crematory operator. This really sucks because I typically work 3pm-11pm and when it's my Saturday to work, I have to be back in the office at 830am, so not much time to make it home and sleep. I'd like to add that there is absolutely zero AC in the crematory, so temps can easily reach above 100 degrees on a normal day, and well beyond that on really hot days. I regularly have sweat dripping into my eyes as I work down there. I am constantly soaked in sweat and to cool off I often need to go stand in our walk-in cooler where we store bodies waiting for paperwork and authorization for cremation.
I also have to clean (or invent things to do) when i have downtime or are slow. “You need to look busy”. I was told this includes cleaning up after the office staff. Example: I've been repeatedly told that I need to empty everyone's personal trash bins at their desks. Apparently it's too much for the office staff to dump their own little trash bins (which they regularly throw food waste into) into the bigger kitchen garbage, which I also have to empty. This is a small company with only 15 employees or so, but the number of bins my “co-workers” leave for me isn't the point, rather it's that they are so fucking lazy and inconsiderate they expect me to clean up after them when I'm already working my ass off.
Anyway, this week I was officially hired on. As I mentioned in the title, I accepted this job because the VP who interviewed me, went on about how excellent their Healthcare plan was. I'm getting married soon and told the VP that I was interested in Healthcare for myself and for my soon to be wife, so that this aligned well with my own personal goals. Turns out that the Healthcare for both of us comes out to an unbelievable almost 1,000 dollars a fucking month! This is nearly half of my entire monthly net pay. Unacceptable.
So, now I am working my ass off at a job that doesn't even pay me enough to afford the health insurance, in conditions and under expectations that seem extremely unreasonable.
Am I crazy for staying? Should I nope the fuck out? I honestly enjoy the nature of the work, generally, the cremation portion at least, but everything else is making me feel like they want me to just bend over and get fucked without any incentive beyond a meager paycheck. With cost of living skyrocketing, to boot.