@SheriGR Well yea, I did all that too. A re-design was one of the first things I did. It really needed an office area and proper break room. And that split-off section duplicate work area was just weird.
Unfortunately a great deal of the tasks require plants. Most (all?) of the potions require plants, then there are other tasks like Order co-workers to garden, analyse flora, examine under microscope, transform some grass, none of which can be done.
Sure, you can bring all the plants with you if you know before-hand what potions you will be making that day. Fortune teller? What... you going to bring ALL required plants with you every time you go to work? Quick search shows there are about... 14... different plants? That's not including alien plants, crystals, or metals.
Ok, so you're saying I should take over a dozen plants and over a dozen microscope samples with me to work every day? I don't think that's very practical. I think the bugs should be fixed.
Bug was never addressed, just forgotten. It's currently one of the older bugs in the game.
Sure, there are a number of things you can still do, but Unless you bring over a dozen plants and microscope samples with you to work every single day, there are going to be random situations where you can't progress and will lose job performance simply because of a flaw in the game.
So, the only option left is to what... Cheat? Ignore the broken parts?