made a mine then started doing other stuff after about five minutes i look in this hole and there is about four dudes stuck. I placed several orders for a ladder also went through suspending different chores hoping they would make the ladder but they would either harvest, do their jobs, or stay idle. I also have plenty of resources
Welcome @Bigadamwe
Yeah there is no empathy among the Hearthlings. They do not sense that others are in danger and adjust their priorities. Many Hearthlings have die a slow death to starvation because of this. One thing that you can do to save them is use the teleport command from the console (ctrl-alt-c) and move them out. You can also use the instant mine command (im) to remove a few block so they can climb out. I see you already took the action to suspend other activities which was going to be another suggestion.