Worker Happiness

[CaptBeefheart]

I am nearing a 47% victory rate in my latest "hard" game. Things are going pretty well with one exception: I don't have enough workers in some key cities to man the train stations and other logistical assets. My pop happiness is usually pretty good, but worker happiness has been declining pretty much across the board.

I have purposely kept city levels down to what I need to create new buildings (e.g. if I need a Train Station 2, I'll boost the city to Level 2, but otherwise I'll keep the city at the lower level). I have also maxxed out worker salaries in just about every city.

In most cities, the worker happiness tooltip will show a positive balance from salary, QOL, danger, unrest, fear and whatever other factors show up, but the actual worker happiness level will decline or get no better. This tells me something is happening that the tooltip isn't covering.

So, the question is: What am I missing to keep the workers happy? Do the cults have an influence? Do I need to make life worse for the general populace?

A couple of other points: My government level isn't so high, so I'm not getting that bonus. Democracy is very high as I've purposely been paying off rather than crushing strikers to boost it. I recently selected pro-right-to-vote decisions for workers and the general public, which maybe was a mistake.

All advice appreciated.

Cheers,
CB

[bvoid]

Check your money.

They lose lots of happiness for not being paid, but tooltip does not show it.

[demiare]

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart
I have purposely kept city levels down to what I need to create new buildings (e.g. if I need a Train Station 2, I'll boost the city to Level 2, but otherwise I'll keep the city at the lower level).

This is a wrong move as it increase speed of advancing civilization level => workers demand more QOL.

I never tried democracy but it QOL seems to be a trap (as civilization level calculated on it) too.

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart
In most cities, the worker happiness tooltip will show a positive balance from salary, QOL, danger, unrest, fear and whatever other factors show up, but the actual worker happiness level will decline or get no better. This tells me something is happening that the tooltip isn't covering.

Worker happiness is unaffected by fear. Some positive (subvocalizers) and negative (events) effects are missing from detailed info of current happiness changes.

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart
So, the question is: What am I missing to keep the workers happy?

Using too many workers without having a way to negate it (subvocalizers/happiness perks from profile). Lack of jobless population is increasing their income => workers demand bigger salaries => unhappiness spiral.

Also seems you suffering too many loses too as it's very surprising for me to lack workers for even logistics.

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart
Do the cults have an influence?

Yes. Here is a guide.

UPD. Funny, guide seems to lack details on worker happiness while I still remember one cult (either Syndic or Mystic) is affecting it. Need to check & update, thank you.

[CaptBeefheart]

Thanks, gentlemen (I assume). Yes, I am experiencing full employment. Too much of a good thing, I guess. One thing I have been doing is mothballing a few less essential structures. I may have to step that up.

Money could very well be a huge factor. About one in three turns finds me with a zero monetary balance at the start of the turn. I also wonder if that could be negatively affecting leaders.

I'll check back later today or tomorrow.

EDIT: The Eternity Movement is big, Anima much less so.

Cheers,
CB

[Falke]

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

Money could very well be a huge factor. About one in three turns finds me with a zero monetary balance at the start of the turn. I also wonder if that could be negatively affecting leaders.

It will affect leaders & Workers. You are promising a salary, but not actually paying it.

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: CaptBeefheart

I am nearing a 47% victory rate in my latest "hard" game. Things are going pretty well with one exception: I don't have enough workers in some key cities to man the train stations and other logistical assets. My pop happiness is usually pretty good, but worker happiness has been declining pretty much across the board.

That is odd. Usually Worker Happiness is the easy part. They are unaffected by fear and receive around half penalties from Unrest and Danger.

The only real issues are:
- there is a massive decrease if you can not pay the workers, but as was said: The UI does not tell you that!
- they want to be paid more then the Private Workers. Unfortunately, the Private Economy wage can varry from 1 miliCredit to 7 miliCredit, depending on how much population there is to fill the private Economy Employment requirements
- there is also the penalty for "QOL below average Civlisation level". Generally I try to keep QOL low. A lot of people think it is a way to "fix" happiness issues. But it is only a temporary bonus, that will drag up civilisation score. And I try to keep that one low. Still, that at least is something worth fixing.

[demiare]

ORIGINAL: zgrssd
- there is also the penalty for "QOL below average Civlisation level". Generally I try to keep QOL low. A lot of people think it is a way to "fix" happiness issues. But it is only a temporary bonus, that will drag up civilisation score. And I try to keep that one low. Still, that at least is something worth fixing.

Same.

Would detail a bit my tactics for QOL buildings for that.
1) I try to delay state QOL buildings as much as I can, but they're more or less mandatory to have for creating new zone (or you need some way to generate A LOT of investment into private economics, so it's a Commerce only way to avoid both them and low happiness issues in new zones).
2) When I finally research QOL buildings (usually when I hunting for needed tech from new tiers), I'm limiting them to level 1 in most zones, up to level 2 in very populated zones. Rarely up to level 3 in capital.
3) I'm limit my Vidcom stations to 0-25% production in existing zones, new one get 100% first, then I'm reducing it. Target is keep it at 0%, raising it only temporary after I'd received QOL penalties.
4) I'm trying to keep 100% production for barracks and hospitals. Why? Because security and health points will help you in some very nasty negative events.
5) Universities are thing that I'm unsure how to use. Depending on my situation (read = how much I'm ahead/behead AI in techs) I'm trying to decrease their output too, but without clear rule of thumbs (yet?).

[CaptBeefheart]

I did some investigating and yes, I'm getting messages in the Zone Reports like "you only paid your workers 1% this turn." My worker happiness is stuck at around 60 for my biggest cities. Once in a while a city will pay them in full and their happiness will pop up to 65 or so. General pop happiness is 90-100 for the bigger cities.

I have had no tax strategems in effect to this point. I assume I'll need to lower salaries across the board (including leaders) and play an income tax strategem as soon as I get one. I just played a 25% sales tax strategem this turn and will see what happens with that. I also have city investment set to around 20-30 in most cities. I may drop that quite a bit at the happy cities.

I am about to get to the 50% VP level, so winning isn't an issue. I have troops that are superior to the major I am about to invade. However, I'm learning that I'll have to pay a lot more attention to reports if I'm going to tackle an "extreme" game.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
CB

[CaptBeefheart]

I'm finding that reading the reports, like the Treasury Report, is not a bad idea. [:)]

I gutted all salaries, got some income tax, sales tax and tariffs going and now I'm slowly increasing worker salaries. I am back in black, worker happiness is in the 70s for the important cities, and logistics is about as good as could be expected (no more 0%-flow bottlenecks). General pop happiness is in the upper 90s except for a couple of crime-ridden backwaters.

Thanks for the tips.

Cheers,
CB