Pros
As so many of these reviews point out... there aren't any really. Was so disappointed that I didn't do a better job of checking on Dignity before I bought into their misrepresentations and outright lies.
Cons
Way too many to list... but here's a start. 1. The first thing you might want to think about before accepting a position as a Family Service Counselor with Dignity Memorial is that they have something around a 90% turnover rate in the position.. if I had known that I would not have walked away from the offer, I would have RUN. Any company that accepts as part of their business model a 90% turnover rate in a key sales position is a company you don't want to have anything to do with. I can only assume that their "top 50 companies to sell for" recognition is probably something they pay for.. as so many "awards" in corporate America are. 2. As a Family Service Counselor (FSC) you will be a non paid administrative contract writer (there is NO BASE salary, only a minimum wage draw). Approximately 80% or more of a location's business is done on an "AT-NEED" basis for which you make either NOTHING or a VERY REDUCED commission rate. The only way you make really any money on an "AT-NEED" client is if they purchase cemetery space (low end is ~4K for a single space and most clients at my location simply couldn't afford that type of expense). As a Dignity FSC you make nothing and can't even talk to an "AT-NEED" client about the funeral... that's left exclusively for the Funeral Director handling the family. Now they will tell you how much money you'll make selling Prearranged Funeral Plans (PAF)... but understand that the least expensive PAF I could put together at my location was about $12,000 for a full traditional funeral (and that's just the funeral, add another $8,000 for cemetery space, and outer burial vault and the opening and closing fees for the cemetery side). Considering they didn't want us to write over a 5 year contract it was more than $200 a month for 5 years... just to pay for 1 of the least expensive funerals. And if you want to see heartache, tell a woman who just lost her husband of 50 years, that she can't even afford to cremate her husband much less have ANY type of service because even a direct cremation is over $5,000. Quite honestly, Dignity is becoming the company for only the wealthy and is, I believe, pricing themselves out of the market... but then again there are a lot of wealthy people out there. 3. You are given inadequate training to actually do the job. The system they currently use is HMIS which is about as unstable as a corporate system can be. We had only 1 PC that could sometimes reliably even take a payment. Hard to sell or do your job if the tools you're given don't work. The computers in our arrangements rooms NEVER worked reliably and we were supposed to walk the clients through entering of the contract... it took HOURS sometimes to complete the contracts and depending on the sales you had to do 2-3 or even more contracts to do what the customer wanted. 3. Don't expect to be given any type of a realistically fair commission program... they will tell you how successful (how much money you can make) but the truth is that those that are basically WORK EVERYDAY, 10-12 hours a day and often, if the location is a busy one, without even the ability to take a break. I had to bring a "snack" lunch everyday and often didn't even get time to eat that. The commission plan is set up to reward and benefit only 1/2 of the company/employee relationship and be assured it's Dignity that benefits entirely from your efforts. 4. There is NO expectation that an employee should be able to have or schedule a day off... you are expected to be available to work EVERY holiday, 2 weekends a month and if on your day off you have a funeral happening for a family you've served, you're expected to attend (stand) it. ALL vacation time must be taken by Thanksgiving, none (at our location) would be granted after Thanksgiving and oh yes, ALL vacation, holiday, sick time goes away on December 31 and is NOT paid whatsoever if not used. 5. You'd better not have an issue with seeing dead bodies... when our location got busy they were lined down the back corridor and it was not uncommon for doors to be left open with bodies packed into our "prep" room. I didn't have an issue specifically but what I saw was disrespectful I thought to the deceased. I could go on about the working conditions, equipment that didn't work, the chaos that was a daily routine, the total lack of organization, the total lack of consistent policies, procedures or guidelines, but let me simply warn anybody who might be considering working for SCI/Dignity Memorial as a Family Service Counselor to simply say no. More than likely, if you show an interest, they will be quick to try and get you onboard... they are having a harder and harder time finding people.. but then again, the word is getting out.