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as the economy slows down and workers are stuck in "shitty jobs", a second life is becoming a new idea for the hard-working workers.

the so-called second life is to find a broad new track to make money outside of the familiar work. the popular new career training courses on social platforms are all byproducts of it.

in a sense, it is an individual going out to sea, seeking new possibilities. when mentality and actions converge into a tide, we try to find out which emerging professions are the real promising direction in the crowd.

let's talk about one of the new professions that is getting a lot of attention nowadays:

pet funeral director.

produced by huxiu youth culture group

in an era when everyone is looking for a side job, high pay, little work and low barriers to entry are the absolute standards for a good job.

after "nutritionist", "editor" and "voiceover", "pet undertaker" has squeezed into the shopping carts of many people. the seller of the course promised that this is a perfect career:

"the work is easy, working from 9 to 5 without overtime, with high salary and good benefits. pet funeral services will be the hottest area in the next ten years!"

what's even better is that this job not only makes money, but also brings a lot of feelings and great merit. now that i have come to this point, it would be a bit ungrateful if i don't take it.

but wait, after being unlucky for most of my life, is it really my turn to have such a good thing?

does the b-side of pet undertaker hide the dark side of the moon?

people who want to change careers only look for two possibilities.

either people are given enough money or they are given enough meaning and value; people always have to gain something.

unfortunately, most jobs in the world have neither of these two characteristics, so countless similar cubicles are filled with similar tired eyes.

but "pet funeral director" is an exception. in media reports and social media propaganda, it seems to be able to solve all workplace problems. pure, profitable, and meaningful, this is not just a job, it is a modern workplace paradise.

the personal testimonials of many pet undertakers seem to confirm that it is indeed satisfying.

yinghao said that when he switched from the design industry to the pet funeral industry five years ago, his greatest feeling was relaxation and happiness.

"i feel very happy. i really feel like i'm in a gap."

the shop where i work is in a village in the suburbs of beijing. i can watch the sunrise every morning while holding my toothbrush in my mouth. i earn very little, only two or three thousand yuan, but i don't have to squeeze into the subway from tiantongyuan to sanyuanqiao, and i don't have to be glued to an office chair every day.

when there are no customers, i just wander around the store and slowly look through the names of every pet on the photo wall. or i sit at the entrance of the village and see people walking their dogs, and also see stray dogs and cats walking by.

today, he is the owner of a pet funeral shop covering an area of ​​more than 700 square meters. not long ago, he opened a second store in haidian.

yinghao's pet funeral home: rainbow planet pet life memorial hall

there are also 7 pet undertakers in the store, who come from various industries.

there are retired peacekeeping troops, young writers who have taught in tibet, former foreign company executives, and agents who have left the entertainment industry. there are also people who have switched from human funerals to pet funerals, and used to sell cemetery plots.

human funeral is certainly more profitable than pet funeral. yinghao said that she "used to earn several months' worth in a month now", but no amount of money can offset the mental fatigue brought by workplace relationships that are comparable to palace fighting.

fed up with the intrigues and the ugly scenes of filial sons and grandsons fighting over inheritance in front of the graves, she finally chose to change her career.

it is a job change and also an escape. the paradise called "pet funeral" is home to many reclusive people who are tired of the complicated workplace.

pet ashes hall in the huge store "maomao island"

pet funeral services can provide a relatively simple working environment without complicated interpersonal relationships.

regardless of whether the owner is kind or evil, regardless of how complex human nature is, "when we are around small animals, the person becomes a very pure person."

because pets themselves are pure, caring about food, drink, sleep, and unconditional love, in this special space, human sociality is automatically stripped away, and topics surrounding small animals are always soft and warm.

"sometimes you even feel that you can see some of the reserved humanity in animals," ying hao said. those guests who are very wary of interacting with people will soften their guard when talking about their furry children.

the working environment is simple and provides sufficient emotional value.

it's easy to feel jealous if you just ask a few stories about pet undertakers.

the job of a pet funeral director is not just about dealing with the body of a small animal - picking up, cleaning, saying goodbye, cremation - it is also a comma, an emotional release and healing.

yangyang, a pet funeral director born after 1995, was most impressed by the hospice care before euthanasia.

she owns a small pet funeral home in beijing. that afternoon, the owner sent her dying pet rabbit to her early, but the doctor would not arrive until the evening, so yangyang stayed with the little rabbit for the last five hours of its life.

yangyang bought food for the rabbit, such as vegetable leaves and apples, and said, "give it anything delicious that we can find."

the rabbit ate a little bit of everything and seemed to have a good appetite. later, yangyang found out that it had never eaten anything other than hay in its life and had stopped eating at home.

the soft little ball of fur nibbled on the taste it had never tasted before, curled up in yangyang's arms, listening to her softly speaking, introducing herself, saying that she had had a hard journey, and that her parents and family loved her very much, but they couldn't bear to see her suffer like this any longer.

holding the rabbit with paralyzed legs, yangyang said: "you are a very brave child. i know you are a very brave child, so i am here with you today. don't be afraid. after you have a good sleep, you will become a free little rabbit and can run around."

figure: maomao island

yangyang always helps when he can, whether it is for small animals or guests. after the guests bid farewell to their pets, they couldn't help but talk non-stop. after they finally left for an hour, the phone rang again, and yangyang continued to listen.

she also tries to counsel young customers who are 16 or 17 years old and are facing the death of a “relative” for the first time.

yangyang said: "it is normal for you to feel sad now, because how sad you are proves how much love exists.

but there is no need to deliberately immerse yourself in grief for fear of forgetting, because it has never disappeared and is always with you. the you who met it and the you who did not meet it are completely different people. as long as you who met it are still living in this world, that part of it will always be with you. "

yangyang lights lanterns and prays for small animals in the temple

there is no doubt that being a pet funeral director is a job that makes people feel meaningful and fulfilled.

the joy of altruism is the charm of a pet funeral director’s profession.

yinghao often sees that after the ceremony, the funeral directors in the store continue to spend three or four hours listening to the guests' complaints, guiding them to resolve their problems, and sending them off:

"they would collapse on the sofa with a happy smile, sigh that they were very tired, and then go open a bag of spicy noodles or grab a bottle of coke."

“most of the customers bring us positive emotional value.”

"even some people who are very aggressive outside will thank you. you will even see an old man in his 70s or 80s bowing 90 degrees to you. this will make you feel that it is worth it and your whole life is worth it."

the a side of the pet funeral director's profession is always touching. however, it is too early to shed tears for this wonderful job. behind the glamorous and smooth life, there is a bumpy b side.

it is true that pet undertakers maximize spiritual value, but to say that they make more money with less work is definitely a marketing concept.

on the contrary, the working pace of a pet funeral director is like that of a new mother in confinement after childbirth.

due to the particularity of the funeral industry, pet funeral directors must ensure that they answer the phone 24 hours a day, so as long as you take the store’s customer service phone number, you will be a passerby from then on.

it was common to be woken up two or three times a night. the phone would ring while i was sleeping. the person on the other end was always someone who had just lost a loved one, was anxious and overly sad. you had to be patient and careful in dealing with it, because there was no margin for error.

sometimes, i was so tired that i didn’t want to answer the phone. although i could hear the phone ringing, yinghao closed his eyes and did not move. “you know very well in your heart that you don’t want to answer the phone.” and at that time, “the ringing really didn’t affect your sleep.”

while breastfeeding mothers still have time to get through it, pet funeral directors are on call all year round. yinghao said, "in a year, i receive calls 90% of the nights."

but no matter how much you resist, you still have to answer the phone, because you know that the person on the other end of the phone urgently needs someone to answer the phone and tell him what to do.

over time, yinghao and yangyang both developed a unique skill: no matter how sleepy they were, as soon as they answered the phone, they could immediately adjust their voices and sound not sleepy at all.

figure: maomao island

except for a few large stores, pet undertakers work on a whim. the boundary between personal life and work disappears.

if ordinary workers always have a time to get off work, then there is no off work in the life of a pet funeral director.

it's down, as follows.

last summer, the long-awaited "all or nothing" was released. yangyang rushed to the cinema excitedly, but just after she sat down and watched the beginning, she received a call: let's go, don't watch it, something's happening.

having dinner with friends, working out in the evening, all private life may be interrupted at any time. sometimes three partners go to the gym together, but they are all called back halfway through.

before the business opened, the two boys promised yangyang's parents that yangyang would be the only one to handle the body cleaning. but when things got really busy, there was no division of labor. they just did whatever they could get. at most, the three of them would take 7 orders a day.

in the early days of his business, yinghao often didn't even have time to eat lunch. when the guests entered the farewell room, the undertaker would wait outside the door in case of emergency.

even during the one day off a week, when customers ask questions in the wechat group, we always have to reply promptly.

figure: rainbow planet

after going through all this physical shit, there are more emotional tests.

when you open your door to welcome customers, there will naturally be bad customers. some customers bring positive emotions, while some customers bring "destructive emotions."

when cats and dogs die in accidents, shock and self-blame turn into anger, which is externalized into rage directed at the driver, family members, nanny, and everyone in sight.

"he will pick quarrels with you everywhere."

"he said a lot of nasty things."

although the guests are very angry, they cannot get angry. at this time, the funeral director has to speak softly and gently to protect the guests' emotions. "it is a very torn state."

figure: maomao island

it's not just about "being small and humble", choosing the service industry also means always putting the guests' emotions before your own.

yangyang's beloved cat tudou died unexpectedly. on the way back from the cremation, a customer suddenly called. colleagues all suggested not to answer the call to give yangyang some time to calm down, but yangyang decided to answer it.

that day, in the flickering candlelight, the sad guest did not know that the two people in the room were equally sad.

and this is just the tip of the iceberg of the "tear" of pet undertakers. as a sentimental profession, a greater crisis has long been hidden, tearing between the gowns of scholars and the scales of businessmen.

pet funerals are not as profitable as people imagine, or in other words, decent people cannot bring themselves to make quick money by going against their conscience.

for yinghao, the most difficult thing at the beginning was to introduce commemorative products to customers.

hair accessories, ashes glass and urns worth hundreds or thousands of yuan are the real money-making items in the store. the average customer spends more than 1,000 yuan, and most of the profit comes from the sale of peripherals.

rainbow planet’s most expensive and best-selling paw print souvenir, “qimu”, is priced at 1499

it is human nature to keep a memory, but when a person who has lost a beloved pet and is extremely sad actually appears in front of him, yinghao still feels that it is too torturous and cruel to talk about this topic at this time.

"when some customers are in a bad state, or some customers look like me when i just graduated, i might just skip the sales process."

"then you start to worry about your own livelihood."

this is the nobility and embarrassment of the people in long gowns.

figure: rainbow planet

i am doing the work of a ceo and caring about an ngo. once death is involved, talking about money seems a bit embarrassing.

yangyang tries to balance the two to the best of his ability.

a little girl from the guest house liked flowers but had no money, so yangyang told her: "go buy them yourself, they are not expensive. i will tell you what to buy, and i will help you decorate the house after you get them."

there was also a mother and daughter. the mother saw that her daughter wanted to leave a paw print and advised her to do so. however, yangyang heard her daughter say, "i don't know how many more days the company can operate." she didn't know whether it was a layoff crisis or a business difficulty. in short, due to financial difficulties, she had to regret the 199 yuan paw print. yangyang didn't say anything on the spot, but after the mother and daughter left, she quietly took out a previously discarded paw print box. the box body had a slight defect, but the function was intact.

when the mother and daughter came to collect the ashes, yangyang handed over the seal box with the paw print and said to the girl: "your life and everything will change."

figure: maomao island

as an operator, making money is a natural thing, but the long gown of a pet undertaker often weighs down the scale.

of course, most of the time, the scale bar still has the upper hand.

many people call pet undertakers "soul ferrymen", but yinghao thinks this title is too pretentious because pet undertakers also need to make money to eat.

"you can't completely and 100% fulfill your life goals and become someone who can help others. it's not that pure."

"we still have to sell things, things that are not cheap, and we still have to make a profit."

however, when making a profit, yinghao still made a rule to lower the proportion of sales commission in wages to prevent employees from being too eager for quick success.

between survival and warmth, pet undertakers struggle to balance the two bottom lines.

therefore, saying that pet undertakers make a lot of money is probably the biggest misunderstanding about this profession.

in many reports, pet funerals seem to be as lucrative as human funerals. a monthly income of hundreds of thousands is not a dream, and a monthly income of 200,000 is "normal".

agencies that sell pet funeral director certificates even claim that even if one does not open their own shop and just works as an employee, they can earn 10k-15k a month in big cities, and easily make over 10,000 a month.

however, yangyang and yinghao admit that it is difficult to achieve this income.

yangyang is still in the start-up phase and has no employees: "i know the lowest is about 4,000 to 5,000 yuan, and the highest is probably 7,000 to 8,000 yuan."

yinghao is a relatively large and wealthy business, and the salaries of the funeral directors in its store are among the highest in the industry, but after tax they only make 7,000 to 8,000 yuan, which is not much different from that of an ordinary pet shop.

after all, being a pet undertaker "is not a career that is suitable for people who are very ambitious and career-oriented."

yangyang said, “because ambition and career-orientedness sometimes make you a little impatient for quick success, but it is a profession that requires pace and patience.”

when it comes to money or value, pet funeral directors are undoubtedly more inclined towards the value end.

however, the myth of pet undertakers getting rich quickly continues to circulate in the market.

most of them come from organizations that sell certificates, and all of them have sensational headlines:

[i took the exam to become a pet funeral director. i have mixed feelings and regret it. ]

what do you regret? i regret not passing the exam earlier.

according to the certificate selling agency, whoever passes the pet funeral director certificate exam will be sitting on the cusp of the boom.

judging from the trend, this industry does have a bright future. the money that young people save on their children is poured into the pet market. pets are becoming more and more like family members, and the affairs of cats and dogs are no longer "the affairs of animals."

in the past two years, the pet funeral industry has been like a balloon. according to tianyancha data, there were 3,607 newly registered companies related to pet funeral and animal harmless disposal in 2022, and the number increased significantly in 2023, with 4,267 new companies added.

where there are businesses, there is demand, and pet funeral directors are exactly the kind of job that is in short supply.

however, the trend and insight are correct. the only problem is how useful this certificate is for people who want to become pet funeral directors.

"no need to take the test, it's useless."

on his social media account, yinghao gave the same response to all netizens who came to him for consultation.

in the yinghao store, the so-called pet funeral director certificate is not a necessary condition for admission and may even be a deduction.

because this may mean credulity, irrationality, and lack of ability to discern information.

the popular pet funeral director certificates on the market come from different issuing agencies, each of which sounds impressive, but is actually not recognized by the industry. in june this year, one of the issuing agencies, the china academy of management sciences, was even deregistered as a public institution by the state.

the certificate is easy to pass. after completing 20 hours of online courses, "you can pass the exam just by listening to the lectures", but the teacher does not even have any professional experience.

spending 1,280 yuan to buy a "watery certificate" makes it hard to say that the talents trained in this way can be of great use.

yangyang said tactfully: "i may not pay much attention to this when i recruit people."

and the hero is even more clear-headed, never getting tired of popularizing science and verifying the uselessness on his social accounts.

but what frustrates him is that even though the latest issue is about "certificate exams are unreliable", people still keep asking in the background: do i need to take the qualification exam? how can i take the exam reliably?

"it's not easy to make money, but you were fooled so easily. some people only talk about the positive side of a thing and never talk about its negative side, which is suspicious in itself. however, there are still a large number of people who don't have this ability to distinguish. i feel very sad, but i can't help them."

in fact, from a technical point of view, pet funeral director is not a profession with a high threshold, but it requires a high character.

operating the machines and familiarizing yourself with the processes are like the introductory instructions for a milk tea shop. as long as you are willing to learn, you can get started quickly.

what is rare is the seemingly illusory nature of the mind.

yinghao hopes that pet undertakers are careful, patient, and most importantly, have experience raising pets. he believes that only those who have raised pets themselves can truly understand and empathize with their clients.

the grief of losing a cat or dog may be easier to understand for people who have no experience of raising pets, but the grief of losing other exotic pets may sometimes seem "unnecessary".

yinghao remembers that not long after he started working in the industry, a handsome 1.9-meter-tall boy burst into tears while holding a pendant made from the ashes of his own horned frog: "our frog is so sensible."

for those who have never kept a pet, it is somewhat difficult to understand how much emotional bond a cold-blooded reptile can bring. but pet owners can more easily understand that the death of any companion who accompanies them day and night, regardless of their intelligence, is a severance of the soul.

without understanding and empathy, it is difficult to satisfy people in many details. it may be the action of picking up a pet, or the date of a commemorative photo that was accidentally wrong. without sympathy and respect, the work will always be a little lacking.

although there are no complicated interpersonal relationships, from a certain perspective, being a pet undertaker is still an extremely stressful job, because there is no room for error in this industry and everyone only has one chance.

if you forget to leave the hair and paw prints of the animals, they can never be recovered after cremation, so patience and carefulness are also extremely important qualities.

it is best to stay emotionally stable, not be carried away by the guest’s sadness, and not get angry at the guest’s unreasonable behavior. be polite and empathetic, but maintain healthy boundaries.

in comparison, academic qualifications, the "stepping stone", are the least important factor.

sometimes, there is even a reaction.

ying hao graduated from a 211 university. when he just left the design industry and switched to being a pet funeral director, he was asked:

"with such a good education, why do you come to our place?"

a few years later, yinghao, who became his own boss, asked similar questions to new job seekers:

"you have a bachelor's degree from tongji university, a master's degree from abroad, and a manager at nestlé. with your education, why are you here?"

the gap between the average salary and reality in the pet funeral industry makes him worry that people with higher education cannot get suitable salaries, and job seekers who run away in the short term will undoubtedly waste a lot of training time costs.

compared with highly educated people with low stability, ordinary people with low expectations are obviously safer.

after all, pet funeral director is still a profession with a huge gap between ideal and reality.

after nearly two years of running her business, yangyang's small shop has not yet made back its investment, and she still cannot sleep well every night. however, she has no regrets and is still moving forward slowly and steadily.

she said that pet funeral director is a good entrepreneurial project, but before the day of qualitative change in the future, first-tier cities such as beijing, shanghai and guangzhou are already too crowded.

when you open xianyu, you can see new pet funeral shop equipment transfers every day. there are always new entrants, and there are always old entrants leaving quickly.

on the other hand, yinghao is exploring how to make "pet funeral director" a better profession.

in his store, employees work 9 hours a day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with one day off a week, trying to ensure complete rest and personal time through shift work.

when it is busy, it is very busy, but when it is not, there is indeed some free time. each person can have about 100 hours of free time every month. during the free time, the time belongs entirely to the employees and can be used freely.

he plans to add more staff in the future to slow down the pace of work and create a virtuous cycle.

this is their story, but for us, understanding the gap between ideals and reality and still choosing to persevere is the beginning of the next story.