This month…

Coronavirus, COVID-19, social distancing, furlough, vulnerable, transmission, contact tracing, pandemic, flatten the curve, herd immunity, PPE, PHE, lockdown, self-quarantine, a-symptomatic, Wuhan.

I’m not being alarmist by quoting these terms. I was just thinking about all the words that have now come into our regular vocabulary over the last two months or so. It’s incredible how life and language have changed so much.

But equally, we have other words and phrases that show some positive changes. Stay at home, working from home (unfortunately not for all), getting to know your family better, noticing and enjoying nature and the outdoors (why do so many people have tans?), exercising once a day, now as many times a day as we want (BC-before corona, who ever exercised every day!)

A few weeks ago we started a new custom in our house. Each of us, that’s 5 in our house, cook supper one night a week (the other two nights everyone can do their own thing). Great for my wife who used to cook every night! It’s a challenge and I just have to decide when it’s my turn whether to watch a Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver YouTube to guide me on how to cook my supper. One night a week is fun, but every night is a big chore. Might be my next business idea!

Our own story at Cogent is that we moved from the office to our homes just before lockdown and everyone is working well from home and we’re all pitching in and helping each other to continue providing the best services we can to our clients, which is always our main aim. As you know, we have been making the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) claim for those of our clients who are unfortunately not working due to Coronavirus and furloughed and have now made many successful claims. We do this without charge and with great enthusiasm to help our clients through difficult times.

As Abe Lincoln said in a well quoted line from a speech: “This too will pass”. As difficult as times are, this situation too will pass. It may change working conditions and possibly in some way for the better. We look forward to working and having a partnership with you for many years to come in health and safety.

Best regards,

Victor Korman
Managing Director
Cogent Accountants