Salem's Work Ethics

Poirot

Poirot

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Admittedly, most Days viewers know all about the Salem money tree, so the jobless always have money in their pockets/purse.

But for those Salemites that actually claim to have jobs, even high powered ones that would cause the rest of mere mortals to not only spend the entire day working, but require overtime and perhaps even a Saturday at times.

So, it gripes the daylights out of me to see these Salemites constantly strolling around the square, meeting people for coffee, lunch, walks in the park, etc. I am talking the ones who supposedly have jobs. Nicole, the reporter who is never at work, Jennifer the P.R. person at the hospital, who spends most of her time at home; Lawyer Aiden who seems to have a lot of free time to meet for coffee, pick up his son, take him to after school/summer activities, just as Hope the cop does.
Today, Rafe was called in to the cop shop, was needed to work on a case, and yet, just a little while later, he is walking in the park, smooching with Jordan. And she doesn't seem to work anymore either, since Rafe became mobile.
Both Kate & Sami, running large companies, have all the time in the world to NOT be in their offices. Time to wander the forests dumping bodies in the river, chatting on the phone, snooping on other residents, taking lessons in art, visiting grandchildren. Must be nice.
Dr. Dan is seen at times in the hospital, but usually he is at home, the square, somewhere, saying he has surgery in a while. Why is he not in the hospital if he has imminent surgery? Abby is supposed to be her mom's assistant, right? Sonny owns a club, rarely there. Don't think Will works at all. Ben works at the club, but seems to have a lot of breaks, or short shifts or something. LOL

Those that have the high powered jobs, seem to only use their cell phone at home for business calls, and their laptops in the middle of the square. Am glad those laptops & cells, have such great batteries, as no one ever loses power in either, despite them being on all the time with no charger in sight. LOL

So.....the only Salemites that really seem to work are Caroline (she is always in the kitchen at the Pub, tho once in a while she is out in front, but it is rare. And then Maxine at the hospital. She is always there, always working.

Oh, to live in Salem, and have all that time, but no money worries, or bosses to get on your case because of all the time one wastes.

Will JJ, Paige, Rory, Bev now join the parade of those who have jobs but don't have to go? I am all for trimming half the square, forgetting about all the flower pots, tables where no one eats or drinks anything, and give us back a conference room. At least one nice office instead of these cubby holes that purport to be a wealthy executive's place to conduct business. (speaking of Lucas's, which Kate uses, and that other multipurpose tiny room, belonging to Jen, Hope, Daniel, and whoever else.
 
:clap::clap::clap:
I was glad to see Nicole on the phone with her boss today. Ever since the shredded evidence incident, the writers seem to have forgotten she had a job. Before that, she was often seen in the hospital trying to get an interview, on her way to the office, etc. Her job requires her to be out and about, but let's see her DOING it a bit more often! It was beyond ridiculous that Ms. Super Reporter had to read about Gabi's confession in the newspaper--she should have been covering it. And there are several times when I thought Nicole being a reporter could add to the storyline. For example--instead of her just overhearing JJ's secret, she could have been assigned to cover his hearing, with Miles telling her he knows it's nothing exciting but it's a slow news day and then she gets wind of what Theresa is doing and wants to use her position to help JJ but her boss is pressuring her to do otherwise and JJ is freaked out that Nicole is going to blow his and Daniel's cover story because he still doesn't trust her. Or, as I've stated many times before, instead of this stupid fiasco that messed up her and Eric, how about Miles wants her to cover some other juicy church related scandal and Eric feels betrayed that she won't choose his affinity for the church over her job?

In general, the storylines would be stronger if the characters' jobs were PART of them instead of extraneous to them. There could be some good work-related conflicts for Daniel and Jen instead of the contrived angst we have now. For that matter, there could be some really good storylines involving Daniel dealing with a patient who has an incurable disease or some disease that somehow affects him personally. Instead of him being super doc who never loses a patient, let him unsuccessfully try to save someone who has similar injuries to the injuries Jack died of and let Jen struggle with trying to support him while being constantly reminded of what happened to Jack, and in the meantime she has to decide how to handle it from a PR perspective without hurting Daniel either professionally or personally. The younger characters should be shown in school too--JJ's graduation would have been much more powerful had we seen his struggles in school after he got sober instead of hearing about them for 90% of the school year and then only seeing him interact with Paige and Marybeth at school.
 
:clap: both to Poirot and the great ideas from Heroic Muse!!

This joblessness has been prevalent since the previous set of writers at least - and their attempt at job-related drama was Rafe/Carrie and Austin working the Basic Black case. :sick:

Will JJ, Paige, Rory, Bev now join the parade of those who have jobs but don't have to go? I
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Oh, you're forgetting the obligatory 2 years at school. (Well, Will did go to college for three years.) I will give the writers credit, they have had Will talk about school quite a bit. I imagine JJ/Paige/Rory will have similar travails over the next few months.

Jennifer annoys me to no end.

Aiden is somewhat believable - if he works at a law firm, and I'm guessing on his age here, if he's not the I-wanna-be-a-partner type, he probably enjoys a 20-30 hour workweek. I know several high-level (and high-billing) professionals in their mid-40s to mid-50s who work a schedule like that, because they're more in "family" mode and they worked their butts off in their 20s/30s.

I do feel like all of our "EXECUTIVES" who inhabit this "SMALL TOWN" should enter nearly every scene talking on the phone about business - but that's just me. Of course, I also think the show should be written at a faster clip (like 1-2 episodes covering a single day).

I totally agree they need another set. Surely there must be a vacant conference room at Sony/NBC/whatever that they could do some location shots in? Even if they filmed a few pickups of the characters leaving a real boardroom, and reused them. ANYTHING BESIDES CONDUCTING BUSINESS IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE!!

Really bugged me that Roman, while Rafe was getting this big bust info dropped in his lap, was playing cards at TBD.
 
Anne is in Human Resources at the hospital but doesn't seem to be very resourceful when it comes to being human.:rotfl:

Let's not forget Arianna Grace, who doesn't have to work very hard at all to be adorable and make us all want to pinch her cheeks. :love:

Nicole's comment to EJ about the guards knowing her by name indicates that at least the guards are working!
 
Aiden told Hope that he has a flexible schedule so that he can spend as much time as needed with Chase. He told her he can pick and choose his cases. So, he is actually somewhat believable. I had the impression that even though he may work with Justin, he does work remotely.

I agree about the show needing more work based storylines like they used to back in the 80s and 90s.

Great ideas Heroic
 
Work ethic? How can Salemites have a work ethic when so many of them have little or no ethics in general? A large percentage of Salem's population is not adverse to lies of all kinds, fraud, character assassination, or theft, and have little problem with homicide as long as it's the right person who's being killed. Then there is the rampant insincerity and jealousy, and, finally, darling Jenny's crimes against good fashion sense. As for the work ethic of the Salem P.D., it's no wonder that the DiMeras have run rings around it for years. Roman and his cops are rarely on the job. (Admittedly, the Bo and Hope team did do some crime fighting, but most of it consisted of committing crimes themselves.)
 
I always say I wish I had the job of the weatherman, as where else can you be wrong a good portion of the time, cop an excuse about the wind moving a system or it slowing up, and no one thinks ill of you. But then, one would have to be in the TV studio at a definite time, or the radio station in order to give the weather bulletins, forecasts, etc.
No, Salem is a much better place. Huge paychecks for doing nothing except making or answering a couple of cell phone calls, free office space in the square, or any restaurant, & evidently others pay to let you charge up your electronic devices while you wander in the park, or sip a $5.00 latte' which is usually on the house, because no one ever pays.
And, silly things like paying the rent, filling the car with gas, changing it's oil, getting fresh milk in your frig, and resupplying the tea cannister are all done by invisible elves during the night while you sleep. Great place, Salem. People claim to have jobs, yet no one works.....o.k. Tad does, and sometimes Ben. At least I see them bringing orders clearing a table, wiping a counter. LOL
 
The last we heard of anyone worrying about money is when Sami was telling Rafe they only had about $10.00 in their checking account and Allie needed new shoes and Johnny needed new pants. Meanwhile, you can't tell me that Lucas and EJ, both wealthy men, didn't pay a fortune in child support.
 
Their closets are bursting, their stomachs are full, they get around town. No one is broke. Maybe they don't have $500,000 in the bank, but definitely not worrying about money. However, Stanford costs big bucks.
As to Sami & Rafe, I remember that time, made me laugh, as they probably just had not visited the money tree yet.
 
I think JJ one day discovered he couldn't take Paige out on a date because his wallet was empty. I guess Jen had forgotten to give him his allowance that day.

Circling back to the original topic, another thing I would have liked to have seen is JJ getting a summer internship...with Nicole. There would have been a lot of storyline possibilities there. After all his community service obligation can't last forever. (And we haven't seen him there or seen that boss that was giving him so much trouble in weeks--in fact, he seems to be able to leave mid-shift when needed now.)

removed texting symbols.....JS
 
This has long bothered me as well. Come on, let's see more hospital related things, bring back Chez Rouge, let's see an office or conference room or call center. Granted, most of the jobs these people have are *boring* - do you really want to see Jennifer shuffle paper, or Nicole doing web searches for sources and information? Or watch Paige and JJ study, quietly, for 2 minutes? Of course not, but on the other hand, we *do* need to see them in their natural habitat, and not just references to what they're doing because most of their things are in the middle of the day, when they should be at work.

I give Will a hall pass - he's trying to be a writer, therefore, he works at home.
 
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