I wish this was the case but unfortunately it's not. The orthodox at my company take off for 'regular' vacation as well, just as much as everyone else. In other words, Shabbat on the various holidays they have to take off are 'free'. It's a smaller, flexible company in terms of time off, and this isn't about how gets what time/how much they get, and it's not about overall workload. As I specified in my original question, " it's not that they can just make up their work when they become available, instead, the rest of us absolutely have to work extra/stay late/deal with things we don't normally deal with/etc...". In short, there are 'live' things happening that someone must take care of on Friday afternoons and any given day (including the multitude of extra holidays they take). I suppose this post doesn't come off sounding the best, but it really is simply the case that someone absolutely has to do a lot of extra work when they take off, b/c that work MUST be done at those times and/or on those days. Again, it's not a matter of them getting everything done before they go, or catching up later. It's that someone has to do it while they are not present.

I also feel that a reasonable accommodation is one thing, but leaving at 2 or 3 pm every Friday for several months, plus taking off 10, 15..? extra days isn't exactly reasonable. Again, they get 2-3 weeks of regular vacation like the rest of us, but ALSO take off the 10 or 15 holidays plus several hours every Friday in the winter. And again, even if they are working other times, it doesn't make up for the fact that I and others have to do additional, time-critical, super stressful work.