In Focus : Burnley - our resilient borough

Resilient Through And Through

Despite Lisa repeatedly claiming throughout our interview that she didn’t think she was resilient, it’s clear her determination began at a young age.

“I was called a scrubber at school because my clothes were rubbish and I have dyslexia, so I was called thick too. We always had terrible cars; I’d make my dad park a few streets away from school. We had to share bathwater too. My dad would let me go first, then my mum, then he’d go last. On non-uniform day I’d pretend I was ill and ended up playing truant a lot to avoid the nasty comments.”

Lisa’s determination to remain strong was sadly tested just a couple of months after Jim passed away, when her 39-year-old friend died from a brain tumour in December 2021. The day before the funeral, Lisa caught Covid so couldn’t attend. Whilst her mum came to stay with her for the first Christmas without Jim, such were the family’s concern about Trudy falling ill, that she went home on Boxing Day.

Come the beginning of 2022 and it is of no surprise that Lisa was finding it hard to put on a brave face.

“I did cry in front of my team, but to anyone else I didn’t know as well I’d say I was OK. I put on a brave face and did lots of walking. Walking without fail is something I started during Covid when you could only meet others outside and it’s something I’ve continued – I do most my business meetings on walks now. But in January 2022 I’d lost all mojo for CUBE HR, I just didn’t want to be there at all. Thankfully, it had built such a reputation and had such a great team that it was running just fine without me. I really was an absent leader,” Lisa tells us.

She’d tried some counselling sessions, but they weren’t for her, so she “walked and talked and walked and talked some more!”.

STILL THE CHALLENGES CAME…

CUBE HR continued to grow in 2022 and Louise O’Rourke and Sharlene Spence joined the team. By the September, Lisa felt like she was getting her zest back for the business, and with a year having passed since she lost her dad, she felt optimistic for the future.

“I walked into work and told the team I knew I hadn’t been there for the last year and I wanted to reset. Dale and I decided to go on a cruise as we’re passionate about travelling and building memories. We’d just left port when the hospital rang – my mum had had a fall and, despite not showing any signs of illness, was diagnosed with COPD and heart failure,” Lisa continues.

Lisa was left reeling from the call and immediately came home. After weeks in hospital, her mum started to improve, with the right medicine and physiotherapy in place. After finding sheltered accommodation close to Lisa, Trudy was excited for the future and the family planned for Naomi to pop round when she was old enough too to help her grandma with cooking. But then just as Trudy was about to be discharged, Lisa received a call to say her mum had sadly passed away at 73.

“I just think she never recovered from losing my dad, they did everything together, they were a team. The saddest thing about it all is she was just getting some optimism back for the future and was looking forward to moving closer to us.”

Losing her mum brought back all the feelings of losing her dad, and the reality hit Lisa that in just her forties, she had no parents and no siblings with which to share the burden. Dale stepped in to help with the admin and clearance of her family home, the home in which her parents had always lived together.

“We didn’t have much, before gaining more stable employment, my dad would take any manual temporary job he could. My mum worked in admin, but in the 80s and 90s they were made redundant a lot when companies closed. I remember my mum crying when the red bills came in, but I had loving parents. My dad would take furniture that was going to be tipped and cobble it all together into new pieces. My dad would tell me, ‘Lisa, it’s upcycling, you have no vision!’.

“It took us years to decorate. We could only afford two rolls of wallpaper a week, so we were always in B&Q, as by the time we could afford to paper a room, the batch would have changed so the colours would be slightly different and we’d have to return. That paper was on the walls from 1987 until about four years ago!” Lisa laughs.

Lisa donated furniture from her parents’ home to Pendleside Hospice, who had supported her family through the last couple of years – “I only gave them the proper furniture though!”

Hopeful For 2023 And Beyond

So, what next for Lisa and CUBE HR? It’s certainly been a more than challenging five years and it would be completely understandable if Lisa walked away from the business.

“I sometimes wake up screaming in the night, dreaming about my mum and dad. I’m terrified of losing Dale and Naomi. But I’d rather be suffering this intense sadness than not, because it’s the price we pay for love. We didn’t have much, but they were brilliant parents, and it’s made me who I am today. Mother’s Day was hell on earth, but it always will be. You cannot let grief consume you because it’s all consuming and easy to stay in that despair, but you can’t stay there, you owe it to yourself, your family and I owe it to my team to keep going,” Lisa says.

AND FROM A BUSINESS POINT OF VIEW?

Lisa explains she doesn’t want to be the biggest HR company out there, but the best. She explains how she’s built a team around her who share her values and want the best for their clients.

“I’m taking the whole team away to Menorca in May as a thank you and to celebrate five years of CUBE HR. We’ve not had a single year of stability, but we’re also the most honest team I know. Being vulnerable with one another helps a lot and I think people can see the amazing work environment we’ve created. I’m sent CVs on LinkedIn from people wanting to work with us,” Lisa proudly details.

“My dad would be so proud of his little Lisa. There I was thinking I would just be self-employed for a few hours a week so I could pick up Naomi from school.”

Whilst by this point, we’re all wishing nothing but stability for Lisa and her team, it’s not quite plain sailing just yet.

“We’ve launched a new software company, HRX People, which is gaining amazing traction and I’m actually going through the early menopause. I thought my symptoms were grief, but it is indeed the menopause, so I have to contend with forgetting everything, my hair falling out and being moody! Lots of reminders and lots of walking keeps me sane though,” Lisa concludes.

Despite the growing CUBE HR, launch of a second software business and the menopause, we have a feeling that Lisa will continue to prove her resilience and make her parents, husband and daughter proud.