If you play with one Sim, the others do go to work and you can give them orders through the pie menu by clicking on the litte arrow in the portrait picture what to do.
Since Sims 4 doesn't have an open world, only the Sim you're controlling and the ones on the same lot can be seen doing something else. You can still take the rest of the Sim to yet another lot. They don't necessarily do much there but as you can't switch to that lot without a loading screen, you don't really see that they are doing nothing.
I might completely misunderstand your question though.
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