Editor’s Note:  I apologize for the tardiness of this article today.  This post was scheduled to go out as usual at 4 am Eastern Time, but for some reason, technology failed us.  Enjoy some thoughts to think about as we move into the weekend.

My first trip to Europe in 1991 reminds me that I’m wrong lots of times with my instincts.  I chuckle when I think of it now, but at one of my first dinners in Germany I was asked if I wanted water with my meal.  I said “yes” and the waiter promptly brought a bottle of water to my place setting.  I ordered another later in the meal and eventually was charged for 2 bottled water orders.

Not a big deal, but I remember thinking, “This would never happen in America.  Restaurants bring out complimentary glasses of water to their guests.”

Some of you who are younger than me will have a hard time believing this, but at that time America really did not have a bottled water industry.  There were drinking fountains and large water coolers for those that needed a drink, but the plastic bottles of water that are everywhere came sometime after that.

Anyway, how wrong I was with that thought. . . . My wife, Angie,  now buys a 24-pack of bottled water every time she goes to the grocery store.  And the thought I had back in 1991. . .I think about often to give me a dose of self-humility when necessary.

While I was wrong with spotting the coming trend of bottled water I don’t let it stop me from looking at news articles and wondering how it will affect me. . or us. . . or the funeral industry in the future.  And, I found myself doing that again this week when I noticed a couple of articles in the news that may have some ramification to our industry in the future.

The first article, that you can read here, is from Reuters and is entitled, “Biden executive order to target non-compete agreements”.  In that article it is pointed out that President Joe Biden will sign an executive order that “. . will call on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to adopt rules that could help to curtail these agreements”.

The article goes on to mention that about half of the private sector businesses require some type of non-compete agreement as a condition for employment.  The article comments that these requirements are not just for white collar professional businesses but now include those in the construction and hotel industry as well.  The article then states, “He (Biden) believes that if someone offers you a better job you should be able to take it”.

I have a friend in the fast food business and as a matter of course his franchisor now requires non-competes for starter level workers.  The problem, my friend says, is fast growing wages that induce his new employees to leave for another quick service restaurant in many cases before he has them fully trained in to work on their own.  I think good people could argue the merits of both sides of non-competes in this realm and see market forces at work, but also see the despair in an owner who barely gets his employee trained before they leave.

On the other hand, funeral homes many times require professional staff to sign non-compete agreements.  In those agreements it’s not only about holding on to employees, but the knowledge that if an employee goes to a competitor he can be bringing along business strategies and marketing techniques unique to his old employer to his new employer.  That is something that worries funeral home owners.  Many of these white-collar non-compete agreements are compensated, so it will be interesting to see what the Biden initiative does with those.

Common in the funeral business and very important to both buyers and sellers of mortuaries is the compensated non-compete agreement of a selling funeral home owner.  His agreement not to be involved in a competing business and the new owner’s guarantee of that can be a valuable asset in the sale of a funeral home.  In the past several years those types of agreements have been buttoned-up to require smaller geographic areas and shorter terms as a general rule by the courts.  It will also be interesting to see if anything happens with these agreements because, if affected, they could de-value a funeral business.  For instance, who would buy a 100 year historic funeral home if the selling owner was able to build a new funeral home and go into competition immediately right next door?

The second article that I came across was this one from National Public Radio (NPR) entitled “Iceland finds major success moving to a shorter workweek.”  The crux of this article relates an experiment in the island nation of Iceland of employees moving to a shorter work week yet receiving the same pay as prior to the work deduction.

It is a very interesting article and some of the things that were done to allow this were very well thought out.  The end result was concluded that “working fewer hours for the same pay led to improved well-being among workers, with no loss in productivity.” And, “working fewer hours resulted in people feeling more energized and less stressed”.

I don’t think that there is anything surprising about the results.  However, for the owners of those businesses, as would happen with owners of funeral homes, costs for personnel have to go up in order to staff to fill in the gaps.

It will be interesting to see where this movement goes in the United States.  If you are an employer you will worry about the costs and if you are an employee you will look forward to an extra five hours of non-work time each week in the future.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Groups gather to honor soldiers from U.S. historical wars laid to rest at Whippany Cemetery.  Video news story and print article.  News 12 New Jersey.  (NJ)
• Funeral directors query online cremation claims.  PR Wire – (Australia)
• How were people buried 2000 years ago?  New evidence.  Jerusalem Post

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