I suppose this might overlap a bit with that automated fortress topic, but whatever.
When I first started playing DF, I was terrified of what would happen if I wasn't constantly monitoring the game. I would pause whenever I went to do anything, no matter how brief. In my mind, untold calamity would have befallen my fort if I didn't. Zombie elephants would come and stomp everything flat, kobolds would steal the pants off my dwarves, the booze would run dry, or explode, etc etc.
Recently though, I've found myself trusting the dwarves to keep things going while I was away. Surely they could survive at least five minutes without me. So I'd go to get a cup of coffee or whatnot, assured that they would make do. Besides, half the time I was mining, so they'd strike microcline within a minute or so anyway.
So this morning I performed an experiment, mostly on myself rather than the fort. I loaded up a new game I had started last night, made sure the farms were set for the next season, set some work orders in the job manager, and then I walked away and took a shower. Then I shaved(sorry, it's only because of my job). Then I had some breakfast. I came back to find the game paused, a season had passed and some migrants (a woodcarver, a lye maker, a wood burner, a cheesemaker, and a thresher, fffff) had shown up. Nobody had died, my stockpiles were full of cave wheat and +Rhyolite Amulets+, everything was fine. It was incredibly refreshing.
So, what about you? How much do you trust your dwarves?