Stephanie Ramsey

Scenario: Morten Funeral and Cremation Service is a high-volume business on the East Coast. The business is owned by Jim and Jane Morten who took the business over from Jim’s dad, Tom Morten, more than 15 years ago. This multigenerational business has served the heavy-populated area for more than 100 years. Jim and Jane have a great team of employees that support them in providing excellent service to the families in their community. However, there is one area of concern with their employees that continues to be a rising challenge for them. As the population in the area continues to grow, the roadways have become more congested. The number of incidents in which their employees are involved in car accidents are increasing. There appears to be an alarming trend where their employees are the ones at fault for these accidents. […]

Scenario: Meyer-Landis Funeral & Cremation Service has been serving families in the northern United States since the late 1800s. Currently the business is owned by Brian and Jackie Landis. They pride themselves on excellent service to their families and train all their employees to adhere to their credo, “Our community and the families we serve are our first priority and deserve to be treated as we would treat a member of our own family.” As COVID-19 became a reality earlier this year, this motto became a talisman for Brian and Jackie as they have experienced a fair number of COVID cases. At the request of their more vulnerable employees, they have limited those individuals’ exposure by adjusting their schedules or responsibilities. In fact, one of their senior licensed funeral directors elected to retire, and they have not yet been able […]

Scenario: Kirkland Cremation and Funeral Services provides services to approximately 150 families in its community. The business is owned by Clark Kirkland. Clark has one other licensed funeral director besides himself and also relies on multiple part-time funeral assistants. Most of these funeral assistants work regular part-time hours averaging 24 hours per week. In late March, when COVID-19 led to his state mandating “safer-at-home” orders, Clark made the difficult decision to lay off most of his part-time staff to do his part to help contain the virus. His expec-tation was this would be only a short period of time as he was an essential business and he needed his staff. However, the federal government then enacted the stimulus package providing additional benefits to newly laid off employees. For the past several weeks, even though Clark has offered his part-time employees […]

Scenario: James and Martha Smitherton own a funeral and crematory business in the northwestern United States, Smitherton Family Funerals and Cremations. Smitherton’s serve 240 families a year with a staff of three full-time licensed funeral directors/embalmers (James, Todd and Kimberly) and a part-time apprentice. They also employ a full-time office support person to assist Martha in the office. The rest of their staff consists of 18 part-time employees who are scheduled as needed and based on their availability. Both Todd and Kim have worked for the funeral home for several years, and while both have children, they are in high school and college. The recent pandemic has stretched the funeral home staffing resources rather thin as nonessential employees are sheltering at home per their state mandate. As a designated essential business, the funeral home continues to operate and provide services […]