Hayley’s Mum & Dad, sister Sam & Joel asked me to give an insight into Hayley’s work life. Was she really as good as her home spun hype?! 


I met Hayley just 2 1/4 yrs ago when she gave me the easiest hiring decision ever, 2 1/4 yrs ago was no where near long enough, but also long enough with Hayley to write a book or, as it turns out, something more like a celestial weather report! She was named in 1985 after Hayley’s Comet - could anyone have lived up to such a naming so perfectly. In our business she was a star performer, a fireball of energy, a whirlwind.

She bowled into our events industry recruitment business, tfconnect, stormed the phones and in hours was doing what others take many months to achieve. Within just days we were getting wonderful feedback from candidates & clients. She was a natural. She loved her job & her job loved her! 

It was all about the way she related to & communicated with people - all of us - family, friends, colleagues & customers alike. And more recently, doctors, nurses, fellow patients, hospital cleaning staff and, quite frankly, anyone who met her! She was all about fun & happiness and, very simply, everyone enjoyed her company. 

On the phone she only needed 5 minutes to know whether someone was good - she was always right! 


And then there were Hayley’s texts - weren’t hers always the best texts to receive - I bet you all feel the same as I, that you could feel Hayley bellyache laughing in everything she typed.

Meeting people is where she really excelled - Once clients or 
candidates had met her, they were on the Hayley hook! 


However, before we all get carried away, it wasn’t all easy. She could be more than a little disruptive &, to some, completely overwhelming with all her work & life rules, her ridiculous enthusiasm (which on the news of another successful placement would inc her desk dancing!) And then there was her dodgy volume control! 


My colleague Owen had brilliantly taken Hayley under his wing but just two weeks in, he came into my office looking shattered & shellshocked. He sat down, started to talk and I could only sympathise with him. Could every phone call and meeting be brilliant, could we cope with every 5 minutes hearing a ‘YAY’, an AWESOME, a shout of AMAZING!? AND could everything & everyone be laugh out loud funny?? 


We quickly learned that the right answer to this question was YES! Hayley laughed at everything, she loved our bad joke Fridays and would even laugh at my bad Dad jokes. BUT, absolutely best of all, most of all, she laughed at everything SHE said!!! Who could not learn to love that??? 


The successful deals flowed & the compliments grew. A steady stream of my friends in the industry queued up to confess to me that they’d met her on tfconnect business and found themselves offering HER a job!!! She was that good!! 


Hayley was with us for just 20 months before she got ill and on top of facing her illness with typical determination and positiveness, we saw an extra-ordinary level of braveness. As just one example, after she was diagnosed, she came into the office, we gathered the team and it was Hayley who calmly told everyone of the news and the prognosis. 

By this time the events industry had taken her to their hearts. She 
received countless messages of support whilst she was fighting, she loved reading them. AND, the wonderful tributes we received after she lost the battle, said everything. Here’s just five of them:- 

Hayley was a great character, super kind and great at her job. 


Hayley was amazing, a huge force of energy. 

Hayley was such a warm & wonderful person. We were blessed to have known her. 

This one from a candidate she placed - "Hayley was simply wonderful. From the moment you met her you were absolutely charmed by her bubbly personality & positivity. I remember her telling me how much she loved her job." 


The last one from a big cheese HR director - "Hayley was an inspiration to me personally, I often thought of her and her positive attitude. It was a privilege to have known her."

Just a month ago in early December I met an industry CEO who said to me “How’s your Hayley doing”. My response visibly rocked him because he hadn’t heard that she was unwell. He told me that he’d met Hayley twice a year ago and that on both occasions he’d walked away from talking to her feeling full of the joys of spring and metaphorically clicking his heels! He added that on the second occasion he’d, of course, offered her a job! 

MY PERSONAL TRIBUTE...is that anyone in my business will always be measured against what Hayley achieved. 


WHAT Graham, Julie, Sam & Joel also aren’t aware of, is that 
working with Hayley gave me a wonderful window into ‘Hayley at home’. I loved talking to her on a Monday morning about her weekends. Conversations that led to us sharing a running in-joke about her friendships 


Hayley would say, I had an amazing weekend, on Friday night I went to my best friends engagement party. On Saturday I saw my best 
friend for her birthday. Ah nice, I said, so your friend got engaged on her birthday weekend. No, no, that’s a different best friend! Then on Sunday I went to my best friends wedding. But she only got engaged on Friday - ah, no that’s a different best friend! Not only did she truly believe that everyone was her best friend, how cool was it that she made all of us feel that way too!! 


Those same Monday morning conversations were affectionately full of Joel, bless him, on Friday night he cooked me dinner, Joel, bless him, on Saturday, he was so worn out from work that I sent him out for a round of golf...Joel bless him, on Sunday he mended my car. 


“JOEL BLESS HIM” was such regular parlance that I did at one stage need to check that BLESSHIM wasn’t in fact his surname?? 

Sister Sam went travelling whilst Hayley was working with us - she regularly told me that she missed her sister hugely, not least when she couldn’t do anything with her hair! Though she did also tell me that, although her sis was her best friend (!), she wasn't in a rush for Sam to come back...she was using her car!! 


Hayley did at one time tell me that MUM would be great for our company. I asked whether it would work to have mother & daughter in the same business. She replied that it WOULD work for her...but probably not for Mum!! 


Dad was clearly on a pedestal and it was always clear that if Dad 
was happy, Hayley was happy. That was the way she wanted things to be. 


SO, how do we truly celebrate the life Hayley led? There has to be a 
legacy and that for me is clear. Hayley didn’t climb mountains or swim the seas. She did something much more important, valuable & selfless, to family, friends & business, SHE GAVE. She gave smiles, she gave laughter, energy and most of all she gave love. If you think of, or talk about Hayley every day you will smile more, laugh more and love more. 


To finish, it’s fair to say that Hayley didn’t do quiet, she didn’t like quiet and a quiet church wouldn’t be to her liking. So, let’s make her laugh by sending her on a way in a manner that isn’t so normal in a church service but is something she would love & so thoroughly deserves...APPLAUSE... 
 



I shared one particularly poignant moment with Hayley. A couple of months before she got ill, I’d told Hayley that she was destined for big things in the business and that the best thing about working with her was that she was low maintenance. As ever she laughed out loud! When I asked what she was laughing at, she said that Mum, Dad, Sam & Joel wouldn’t buy the low maintenance bit. I offered to put it in writing which, of course, made her laugh again and, needless to say, that note got written and got shown at home! 


On the day that Hayley received her diagnosis, my colleague Alison
& I dropped everything and drove straight to Stoke Mandeville. We found her ward and as we walked towards her bed, she was sitting cross legged on the bed with wires everywhere and she simply said to me,

“I guess I’m not low maintenance any more”.

We hugged! Xx