Beer Compurgation

As the third pint poured and the time ticked past 5, the guilt began to set in. The familiar spot on the bar represented a tainted area, surrounded by metaphorical barrier tape marking out the required quarantine. This one was to be the last. Or maybe the next one. Maybe they’ll be time for one more after that. But then it should be time to do the right thing. Then the decision was made for everybody anyway. In one announcement, the social diary was wiped away, like a cloth to a whiteboard. The decision as to whether to have a pint after work. The decision  as to where to meet a friend on a Thursday evening. The decision as to how to spend a weekend. Gone. Taken for us. The reasoning was sensible and the decision the correct one, but whilst the supermarket shelves emptied the hollowness set in. As people cried solidarity the walls began to soften. There were comments near criticising anybody saddened by the turn of events –  “you can go a few weeks wit

Outside of my beer hobby, my day job involves managing a small company in a boring sector. Without going into detail of the work, it is in an industry that relies on business to business relationships and standard 30 day payment credit terms; like the vast majority of British business and industry. In an idyllic world there would be nothing more to say on this matter. As a company we pride ourselves on being excellent payers to suppliers and we will bend over backwards to help our clients who are too. But this business utopia doesn’t exist and, as such, the accounts department spend many wasted hours chasing payments, sending copy invoices and trying to work action plans with people. Once a month we’ll compile the “on-stop” list of clients we are no longer to do business with. Some will eventually pay. Some will fold, leaving us to scrape around 15% of what is owed through the administrators. On larger orders, several industries maybe involved with the end user, m