So basically he takes his 1 week per 4 break that he started taking a while ago, now he takes the "covid break" making it sometimes a 1 chapter per 3 weeks, and now we have another kind of break to add to the equation. Seems the author is taking breaks because the gave them to him not because he needs them.
WSJ need to start bringing good series in, every other series is subpar at best, mha being average at kenshin/reborn/nurarihyon level, wake up, the series suck!
You literally have no idea what you are talking about lol.
- Oda pretty much worked non-stop for 5 years before he took his first actual break, with the occasional jump break. He then took a few breaks here and there for one piece's timeskip and certain events in his life (marriage, birth of his daughter, etc).
- He started EARNING his merited breaks because in 2014, he got extremely sick and was hospitalized for a month during Dressrosa. This is WHY Jump gives him his breaks every 3-5 weeks, because they don't want him to get sick like this again. He also has a very bad lifestyle (no sleep, smokes a fuck ton, etc) and has only recently started trying to improve it.
- When COVID hit this year, Oda was still one of the only authors at Jump working analog. This means he hands in his manila folders directly and must receive them back from his editor with mandated changes. His whole process is analog. He does not do anything on the computer except for his color spreads, jump promotions and volume covers.
- Like any employee, Oda gets sick, except with his sickness he can miss deadlines to publish his work. How can you think this correlates to any other scheduled break he has? Getting sick isn't a schedule lol.
So no, Oda isn't "off" for 2 weeks straight. He got sick to where he couldn't meet his deadlines for the chapters 2 weeks in a row. This happens now and again. If he is behind in storyboarding, then he can't have the chapter edited and worked on for release. He works on more than one chapter every week, because they are at different stages of completion on a weekly basis.
He's not "3 chapters ahead" (not in response to you, but to others), he's only ahead in storyboarding. For example, if he is back at work now, he is very likely still working on 992 and getting it edited, whilst getting the storyboards ready for 993. Next week when he is "off", he will have submitted 992 to be printed with the issue the following week, while editing 993 and beginning storyboarding for 994.
This is how it works. It not *poof* magic here is the chapter in a week.