Emotional suffering and burnout amongst professionals in palliative care settings are increasingly discussed phenomena in the media and the specialized journals alike. However, we still lack anthropological understandings of the ways this distress is related to the dynamics, practices and representations of palliative care institutions. This article, based on a 2011-2012 fieldwork realized in one of the 27 independent hospices of the province of Quebec, aims to contribute to the question in showing how the ways the staff conceive their roles in caring for the dying can open the door to emotional strain. We explore how their suffering is related to the nature of these roles, the institutional framework, and what is perceived to be a « Good Death ».