How do workers work, exactly?

[Headbomb]

I feel like it isn't explained very well and you can't check the tutorial about them after you close it. So far I understand this:
1) Houses provide workers according to the happiness. So going into negative happiness will actually reduce the amount of workers a house "produces"
2) Workers carry stuff around for building or refining purposes. The further the length the more time it takes for a worker to carry the materials, which takes that worker out of free workers pool. Having no available workers means all your carrying actions will stop, including building new stuff.
3) More workers is always good.
What I don't get is how production buildings are affected by the workers. Are they using as much as their capacity allows? Say, if a building has 5 slots for workers, it will use all 5 to produce resources? If these resources need carrying, will it take use workers or workers in that building?
How much can one worker carry? It is always 1 unit of goods? Is it multiplied by happiness?
How can I minimize the downtime for buildings that consume resources? Should I increase the global amount of free workers or upgrade the building that produce the resources?
Is positive happiness worth it or should I try and stay at 100% or slightly above?
Does house placement matters or should I place them where I can supply them the fastest?

I have no doubt that I will need all that information in later stages and so far it's the biggest obstacle to my enjoyment. I basically how no idea how anything works aside from "keep buildings close together" and "have positive happiness". Rusing to explore the map seemed like a logical choice, but I quickly ran out of happinnes. Resource nodes are everywhere and I don't need more. I feel like encouraging map exploration via tutorial message so early wasn't a good idea.

[Deadweight]

I'm having a similar struggle. I unlocked houses, wheat and water very close by, and yet they are blipping, fluctuating between not enough product and having enough. There is 30 wheat farm levels and 30 aquaduct levels to 5 housing levels, so supply is good. I have spare workers, so why are the houses turning on/off constantly?

[Headbomb]

Originally posted by Deadweight:

I'm having a similar struggle. I unlocked houses, wheat and water very close by, and yet they are blipping, fluctuating between not enough product and having enough. There is 30 wheat farm levels and 30 aquaduct levels to 5 housing levels, so supply is good. I have spare workers, so why are the houses turning on/off constantly?

I found that maxing your production priorities on houses, wheat and water helps with that, otherwise your goods get taken away for other stuff

[Ragnafox]

3a- Production buildings don't have slots for workers, which determine production. They have production capacity, which determines number of needed workers. This difference matters if you have a "production capacity per worker" modifier. The number of workers a production building uses to produce is equal to the base number of goods it produces, before production multiplier, divided by the "production capacity per worker" stat, rounded up. I don't know of a limit to the number of workers transporting goods per building.
3b - The number of goods a worker can carry is determined by the "transportation capacity per worker" modifier.
3c- You can ensure that a building stores more resources it needs by increasing its "max stockpile" slider. Ensure that you have enough workers that your requirement doesn't fluctuate higher than your cap. Ensure that your production of input goods is at least as high as your consumption of them.
3d- The happiness multiplier mostly matters if you are reaching the point where you are capped on workers. The use besides ensuring you have enough workers is the great person that gives science per idle worker. Theoretically if you get to -50 happiness, you will have zero workers. I don't know if there's a cap that lets you keep a minimum percent, and I don't want to test it.
3e - I mostly put houses near building that produce their required good, but once you get the Chichen Itza wonder, its +1 Production multiplier for each adjacent building is great for apartments. I find a place to build Chichen Itza surrounded by six apartments, with their require inputs nearby.

[Schlobbmann]

also, in the early game it can happen that your houses are worker net negative. look at the workers tab and there transportation. it is the number of workers used right now to transport the water and wheat to your house. you dont want to have more workers transporting to your house than the house itsself is providing in the end. there you also see in brackets the longest distance your goods travel. set your "max stockpile" minimum to this number - since goods that are on the way count to the target stockpile.