Are you able to share your save file so I can see what's going on exactly? The only thing applying does is schedule something called a "drama node," which shouldn't be capable of doing that.
Also, I'd definitely try to repair your game - the last game patch did some weird things behind the scenes that have been causing performance issues even in unmodded save files. I was getting game freezes until I emptied everything from all my household's storage containers and moved to a different lot.
Edit: I just tested applying in a new save file and it worked fine. All of the calls came through, my sim got the job, and time progressed as expected. I'll keep an eye out and see if there's a way to replicate.