>>96738204
Know No Fear also shows us what life is like for Great Crusade-era humanity. A manufactorum overseer gets visited by an Ultramarine because they suffered a 6 minute delay due to a worker passing out from exhaustion and needing to be replaced with a reserve laborer. The Ultramarine lectures the overseer on the importance of zero delays, as even one minute of delay in supplies being shipped to the frontlines of the Great Crusade can cost thousands of lives.
The Overseer simply points out that small delays are inevitable when workers are being pushed to do 16 hour shifts with no breaks, 6 days at a time, and production quotas keep being increased, which is forcing them to expand work shifts longer and make up the difference by stimming the workforce to keep them awake like zombies at the production line.
Of course, the Ultramarine's arrival forced the factory to be shut down due to the pomp and circumstance of the marine's arrival, the ceremonies they have to do to greet him and the lecture with the overseer. Costing another two full hours of production before the Ultramarine leaves.
The Great Crusade Imperium was better than 40k Imperium in almost every condition. However, it was not 'good' for the average citizen. The Emperor was wringing every last bit of effort and life out of the serf population that he could to keep the warmachine grinding onwards. And this was the Ultramar Empire, the 'nice' part of the Imperium where your Astartes overlords sit down and talk to you rather than simply putting a bolt shell in your cranium and ordering the next overlord to step up production to make up for the loss of time.
