Working in a sort of netherworld where public and private spaces come together, crematorium operators have a specific, technical job to do. In charge of equipment they must both use and watch over, their jobs require direct and indirect interaction with corpses undergoing a final transformation. This intersecting of the dead and machinery confronts crematorium workers with a particular type of distress, which is also subject to industrial-like workflows. Also, their occasional contact with the grieving requires developing the capacity to psychologically step back from their mechanical environment. Distancing themselves from the technology they have to use while coming to grips with the rest is how they structure their jobs: it requires going back and forth between being detached from their work and enduring the violence it submits them to.