Overtime

Volunteering to work for 28 days straight. Also, me on an assembly line (not a good result). And, 7 other things worth your time.

Welcome to day eleventy-quillion.

Seriously, I’ve lost count. Maybe you have, too.

But a some employees at a West Virginia factory are having a different experience.

There are 42 of them at Braskem America, makers of polypropylene—a raw material used in the creation of face masks, surgical gowns and other medical equipment.

To keep the factory going in a time of social distancing, they volunteered to literally live at the factory: working 7 days a week in 12-hour shifts, sleeping on air mattresses, separated from their families.

They’re at a facility in a town called Keonva, and they locked themselves in on March 31. They'll get to go home tomorrow, after 28 days.

Their colleagues at another Braskem America plant, in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, did a similar “live-in” that ended last week.

Your place in the supply chain

I spent a bit of time Sunday afternoon on a bit of a tangent — trying to understand how polypropylene production works. Let’s just say I was not successful enough in my quest …