Work For Us
The Good Funeral Guide is not a cash-generating enterprise, it is a cause – presently a one-person labour of love run from a spare bedroom on a frayed shoestring at, to the dismay of the tax people, a steady annual loss. It is proud of its ragged-trousered independence. Its sole focus is to serve the bereaved by putting them in touch with those who can best serve their needs.
A cause belongs equally to all who believe in it. If you believe in it and you want to do your bit, can you contribute your ideas, your skills, your talents? The cause needs you! The cause needs people of all sorts, from fine-detail specialists to those who prefer to paint with a broader brush.
We need financially literate people to dissect funeral planning schemes, interpret the annual reports of the big funeral businesses and scrutinise areas like probate and inheritance tax.
We need people to scrutinise the advice and guidance offered to the bereaved on, especially, HM Gov and local authority websites.
We need people with a knowledge of the law who can expertly handle queries and complaints from consumers.
We need people with strong feelings about any area of death and dying. Assisted dying, for example. Or the way care homes deal with death. Or home (do-it-yourself) funerals. All these need penetrating investigation and up-to-date reporting.
We need thinkers and dreamers, scholars and philosophers.
And the GFG blog is a great platform for you to talk about your ideas to a dedicated and growing readership. I welcome guest posts warmly.
If this cause belongs to you, would you like to review funeral directors and secular funeral celebrants in your local area? That’s what we presently need most of all. You do not need to know anything about the funeral trade. I can give you all the background knowledge and backup you need. You do not need to be a great writer, either. So long as you gather the information required and apply your own human judgement, that will be enough – but if you want to write it up, too, that’s a bonus.
In the case of funeral directors, you can visit either by appointment or as a mystery shopper (whichever you prefer), fill out a questionnaire and either send it back to us or write it up in the format of the reviews of best funeral directors on this website. As well as evaluating the personal qualities of the funeral director you will also inspect their premises, including their mortuary. This may sometimes bring you into contact with dead people. You need to know that.
In the case of celebrants, you will need to visit, read through scripts they have delivered, contact satisfied clients and, if possible, attend one of their funeral ceremonies.
You will be an influential part of something important. The purpose of the Good Funeral Guide is to give people the information they need to create a meaningful and memorable funeral. For some that will be a cheap funeral, for others a costly one; for some a simple funeral, for others a sumptuous one; for some a conventional funeral, for others a quirky one. For all, it will be a better informed funeral.
In order to do that, they need to work with people, funeral directors and celebrants, who can interpret their needs and wishes and enable them to make it happen.
And that’s where you come in!
If you’d like to find out more, please contact me: charles@goodfuneralguide.co.uk. If you give me your phone number, I can call you.