Wow, talk about taking an informative post and putting a negative spin on it all!
I'm confused about the Carmen issue, why would Carmen be programmed to penalise blocks of days off? We all have to have a minimum number so what would be the point of penalising blocks when it also penalises singles? Therefore there's a rule set to prevent any day offered though we have to have them? That makes no sense.
And Carmen works for me just fine, as I said I think most people expect too much from it.