How do office dynamics change when family is involved? Check out what Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey has to say about what’s happening across the daytime dial.
We’ve all been yelled at by a boss (or two…) but what happens when the office honcho is your dad? Drama!
Y&R’s Victor Newman would scare me on Christmas morning, much less at work every day where he controls my entire extended family and our paychecks.
Victor (to Victoria): “New-man Enterprises is bigger than you and your damn feelings. Accept this or leave!”
Nikki: “Why don’t we take a break?”
I love Nikki. She’s the syrupy glue holding the company and the family together but she needs an HR refresher. Yes, an employer may enact a policy that bans dating within the organization, but Newman Enterprises clearly hasn’t done that since Victoria and Nate are having sex on her desk. Hence, Kyle’s got a solid case against his former mother-in-law (another dodgy boss situation) after Nikki ordered Audra to fire him because she didn’t like Kyle’s attraction to Audra.
Audra: “She could see it in your eyes. She told me to fire you.”
Kyle: “Because of a look in my eye? Are you kidding me?”
Audra: “It’s over.”
Kyle: “We went from your hotel suite to distant acquaintances in the blink of an eye.”
Aw, poor widdle Kyle’s feewings were hurt because the town viper turned on him. He had a similar employment problem with his former grandfather-in-law who lectured him over a drink at lunch.
Victor (to Kyle): “You are an Abbott. You don’t belong at Newman. You belong with your family business.”
Not if his uncle Billy has anything to say about it. After a blowout with Jack, Billy downed a double and dug for dirt on Tucker with Adam while Kyle was telling Diane he’ll return to Jabot only if Jack fires Billy. I can’t stand Tucker but with Kyle, Victor and Billy all drinking in the middle of the day, this does seem like a good time for a hostile takeover of Jabot — and every other company in GC. The executives are all drunk!
Mom bosses are just as bad. Ask anyone at Titan, where DAYS’s Vivian ousted Maggie from her job and then couldn’t find any employees. Viv offered her former stolen embryo Philip the job (no) and even Philip’s mom Kate (another no) who she hates. Then came Alex.
Vivian: “Come work with me at Titan. Make your uncle proud.”
Alex: “We despise you. You’ve been messing with my family for years and you just kicked my father and his wife out of their home.”
Vivian: “Justin should find his own place to live, and who is that hillbilly wife?”
Way to ingratiate yourself with one of the only possible employees left in Salem, Viv.
Vivian: “Doesn’t anybody want to work anymore?”
Not for her!
The curious choice to rewrite history to make Alex the son of Victor, not Justin, does make it possible for Alex to someday work with his newly discovered dad’s … picture.
Alex (to Victor’s portrait): “How can you be my father?”
Working with a lovah is fraught, too. GH’s Anna thought she had the perfect partner in Valentin to investigate who was stalking her, but when he found out the culprit was his own daughter, he roped his ex Nina into the secret rather than his current girlfriend. So there was a scared Anna walking around with a bodyguard (and no home or safe hotel room) while Nina was deleting the hotel footage of Charlotte’s crime.
Nina (to Valentin): “You cannot blame yourself for any of this.”
Actually, he can blame himself for all of this. Charlotte’s mother, Lulu, is in a coma, and Valentin shipped the kid off to live with her former stepdad Dante and his new flame Sam. So rather than punishing his child of the corn for committing federal crimes he rewarded her by buying her a house near her favorite horse (!) so they can live together.
Charlotte: “Oh, Papa! I love it!”
Anna won’t. You know who treated Anna with care and respect? Her ex-husband and former co-worker Robert who collected copies of the photos she lost in the fire and gave them to her on a tablet.
Anna (crying): “What in-spired you to do that?”
Robert: “You were more upset about losing those pictures than you were about losing the house.”
Sharing is caring. Lying is not.
B&B’s tale of patriarch Eric wanting to do one last collection for Forrester Creations before illness takes his ability to draw is so familiar we can practically feel our grandparents in every scene. Ridge and Brooke had no idea why his father wanted the Ridge vs. Eric showdown so badly but they were still pretty disrespectful to the founder of the company that has made them all millions.
Brooke: “It’s time for Eric to put down the pencil and enjoy his life.”
Donna: “You don’t think he can win, do you?”
Brooke: “Forrester Creations was defined by Eric but now it’s defined by Ridge.”
Hold on there, Logan. If you have to pause Brooke’s Bedroom line for a year so Eric can have one last hurrah at the company he founded, then dig out last year’s camisole and keep your mouth shut. Better yet, pause Hope For The Future. All Hope and Thomas do is fool around in the office anyway.
R.J. (to Donna): “My dad needs to know the truth.”
You’d think the upside of working with your father every day would be keeping tabs on his health, but I guess Ridge was too busy bouncing between Brooke and Taylor to notice Eric’s shaking hands.
As Dylan Thomas wrote, “Do not go gentle into that good night… Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Aging: The most relatable kind of drama. Team Eric!
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
