There are times in the game when I feel an emergency setting is needed. Maybe it does and I don't know about it.
For example, your base is under threat from fire or on fire. So you order the colonists that won't fight fires to deconstruct wooden walls or cut grass to prevent the spread of fire. They will deconstruct one block or cut one square of grass and, if tired or hungry, they will then go and eat or sleep.
This necessitates micro-management of ordering them to cut a single square of plants, pausing when they've completed, and then ordering the next square and so on.
So an emergency setting would make colonists keep doing their assigned task, overriding their need for sleep or food, with the with consequent mood risk penalty.
Yes !
I think it's the same with firefighting - if a colonist is firefighting and tired or hungry they will go and sleep or eat rather than fight fire, which means having to set them to manual control to fight the fire.
An emergency mode would probably need to be colonist-specific rather than a general setting for all colonists, so individual colonists could be put on emergency setting, while others, such as non-firefighters, could continue as normal.
Potentially, the emergency toggle could only appear in times of emergency, such as if there is a fire or hostile pawns on the map.
The colonist icons at the top of the screen should have some indicator to show whether they are on emergency setting, possibly a slow flashing red icon or symbol.
Whatever you propose or explain, I like the basic concept of the Idea.
At the core it sounds like the civilian version of drafting.
Work until you collapse.