We are supposed to get two days off each week, hopefully in a row. But in sports, those two days are never Fridays and Saturdays, due to earlier deadline and a busy sports schedule those days. It seems, when we are fully staffed, we just have enough people to get through the week. But we've had a high turnover among the younger copy editors, so that has increased the workload for the rest of us who stick around. Also, if someone is on vacation, we have to solve ways to cover for that person.
Extra pages are okay.
The senior copy editors have been there long enough to accumulate 5 weeks per year, each. And we are required to use or lose our vacation time during a calendar year. But, due to mandated vacation freezes during times when we are super short-handed, we often pay back vacation time early in the next calendar year, which then puts a burden on that year's schedule. It's a vicious, never- ending cycle. Oftentimes, the low-person on the totem pole seems to have vacation requests denied.