Lionel certainly was close to the mark when he called Judith "artless." She's romantic -- we can see that because she's constantly looking for involvement and she's quick to fall in and out of relationships. She's attracted to Lionel and then to Alistair and back again to Lionel and then back to Alistair. She's attracted by the whole notion of romance and pushes for the successful reunion of Jean and Lionel. She'll go to great lengths -- remember the trip to Pangbourne? -- just to give them a chance to be alone.
She's been married twice and it doesn't appear as though she's too successful at standing on her own. In the end she's back living with her mother and working in the business her mother built. One week she's dating a man old enough to be her father and the next she's hanging around with a married man and leaving him to roam freely thru her parents home while she goes off to work. When her mother says that Judith isn't a good picker of men, she apparently doesn't recognize the truth of this and she makes no attempt to either prove or disprove it -- instead she storms out of the room. Normally she's quick to forgive, but she can be stubborn, too, and you see that in her treatment of Alistair during the period when he was trying so hard to apologize to her. And look how hard Sandy had to work to get her to dress up to go to the restaurant for the Mercury fiasco. Judith felt so insecure that she didn't think she had a chance against the perfect woman she perceived Mercury to be.
She resents it when people call her on her irresponsibility. She pouts when she realizes that Jean doesn't even consider her as a candidate to run the branch. There are times when it is obvious she belongs at the office, but instead she goes off with Alistair or just spends the afternoon shopping. She's a flirt and a pacifier and maybe even a threat -- but she most certainly is not an administrator. At least not when we first lay eyes on her. It seems as though when Jean leaves the office, we -- the viewers -- leave the office, too. Once in a while we return to find that things are running smoothly and it appears that not all of this can be attributed to Sandy. Lionel explains to Jean that Judith can't seem to spread her wings when she is in her shadow. Apparently she's found a new side to herself once she's left to bring herself into her work.