Debt is honest when it has a number attached to it. Process debt never does. It comes with no statements, no interest rate, and no one who signed for it. It is what accumulates when a business grows faster than its operating habits, seeping into the structure of a company without triggering any alarms because on the surface, the business keeps running. Revenue comes in, work goes out, the machine keeps turning. It is easy to mistake surviving for performing. By the time process debt becomes visible, it has usually been accruing for years.