Since the npcs appear to be on strike most of the time, I thought it would be fitting that when they are standing waiting for me to craft that crystal ball for which to read their minds, they could actually be patrolling the build area carrying signs that say something like:

"No [thing], No work!"

"I can't work with this [thing]"

" sucks, we need [thing]"

"[thing] [amt] to save the world!"

etc...

Then all I have to do is read the sign to get them going again.

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good idea but the sign thing is not fitting they are not protesting but bubble over their head like they are chatting with each other and we can see read it .

Something like this...https://mods.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/235520-chat-bubbles

yes this will help alot so the player will be more informed of whats going on especially in a rainy day @Raycoms :p

I'd say when you run into them (like collide with them)
we could have them provide a "bubble" with the "last up to".
We could have a textField in each citizen with "lastUpto" which we can set in different jobs like "waiting for x" "clearing x for y" "fishing" "gathering" etc.