Well, that was something. I don't know if I'm sufficiently able to objectively break down the episode, so I apologize for that in advance.
Before we get into all of that, though, the first half of the episode was great. It's nothing more than setting up the events of the second half - which I'll pedantically nitpick in a moment - but it goes all out in making the central joke, that Nicole doesn't give Richard enough credit for the work he does, a lot of fun. I mean, starting off with Nicole launching an aggressive rap about getting the small raise of "three cents on the dollar" and employee of the month is always promising. It's what the show does best - take something terribly mundane and turn it into something hilarious.
It's upon seeing her on top of the world that Richard gets set off, feeling all of his hard work is being neglected. He then goes on to try to prove that point in the typical Richard fashion which, by the way, doesn't make it any less great. (Among the highlights are Richard using the kids to mow his lawn by eating the grass and drying them off post-bath to heavy metal/Irish music.) Nicole shakes it off nonetheless, so Richard goes on strike.
