In the course of a day crew becomes oppressed (8)
I believe the answer is:
weighted
'oppressed' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in the course of a day crew' is the wordplay.
'in the course of' indicates putting letters inside.
'a day' becomes 'wed'.
'crew' becomes 'eight' (I've seen this before).
'wed' placed around 'eight' is 'WEIGHTED'.
'becomes' is the link.
(Other definitions for weighted that I've seen before include "Given a bias" , "Made heavier" , "having extra burden to carry" , "loaded" .)