VIP folder vs. Smart Mailbox Folder - Why won't they behave similarly?

My poorly formatted question is this. Why in the VIPs folder you can view ALL the emails in one view from the people you add to this list when you click on the root VIPS text...HOWEVER...when you create a Smart Mailbox Folder like "Employees" and then add people to that list, you can't see all the emails from everybody in one view when you click on the root Employees text. You have to individually select employees from the pull down list to see their emails.

I thought this used to work fine with Lion. Maybe I'm missing something here?

Also, another weird and annoying little bug is that when you add Employees to your favorites bar and then select one of the employees from the list, the text in your favorites bar changes from "Employees" to "Employees - John Doe (24)" and doesn't let you revert it back to the simple Employees root text unless you drag it off the favorties bar and then re-add it. Very annoying.

Anyone else having the same problem?

Thanks!

jacobe