I had 2 villagers close to getting totems at the same time, both waiting for building.
Then a totem arrived for the lower of the 2 builders, although his name tag still says Adept and he has since stopped gaining in the skill.
Poor old Granny is also stuck with building higher than her master in farming, yet she is still labeled as adept builder.
Consequently I can't get my gong piece out of the crate

This all happened yesterday, the pc was off over night, game logged out etc etc etc.

When I went to get my gong piece out of the box, I had to master builders and one adept builder - just at the edge of master .. it worked. Try it.

They're both dead now, but thanks.

The main issue was I had an adept/master/master as an elder, and poor old granny who had a higher building bar than her 2 other master skills, yet still only showing adept in building. So never got the totem she'd earned

Also, now, of the 5 people who have died since, 3 of them have the adept elders name

The visual skill bars aren't accurate. You can only go by the status line, whether it says, "Master, Adept, or Trainee", and use the skillbar as a general visualization of where they're at.

Apparently, the update patch will make the skillbars more accurate, when it comes out.

Excellent thankyou

Not so much that they weren't accurate, as that there was a deliberate overlap of adept and master... but you're right, they've decided to go for a straight up visual indicator