Why do my pops keep leaving my external factory?

Question

I have a Polymer Factory outside my domes:

Every time I assign workers to it (note, it's set to accept all workers, not just specialists — but I'm assigning specialists, anyway), it works productively for maybe an in-game day or so. Then, all the workers leave, and go sit inside their dome, unemployed.

How can I get workers to stay assigned to external workplaces?

Are you sure that's within a dome's work radius? It looks a bit far away. — Comic Sans Seraphim, Dec 20 '18 at 16:22
Try setting the priority of the Polymer Factory to max. I had a similar issue but by setting the priority to max it makes sure that that building gets everything it needs before anything else. — Arin Zandbergen, May 22 '19 at 19:44

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 20 '18 at 16:18

There can be several factors like the location where they live, if the factory is too far from a dome or their moral going down. The most common cause is that the IA tries to fill the "important" working places first like grocery shops before production ones that are less vital. It also tries to balance all the working places to have the same amount of people in each of them meaning that if you have a polymer factory and an electric parts factory, the work force will be split between both of them

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 21 '19 at 15:46

Working outside causes sanity damage. When the sanity of a worker gets too low, they quit their job and become unable to work. They eventually get better, but they will then take a new job.

Possible workarounds:

Research "Martian Resilience" which makes Martianborns immune to the outdoor sanity effect and only assign Martianborns to these workplaces
Research "Smart Housing" and assign your workers to smart houses/complexes. Their sanity recovery effect should cancel out the sanity loss from their job.

Why do my pops keep leaving my external factory?

2 Answers2