(istockphoto.com) The Families and Work Institute recently released its 2012 National Study of Employers. And there’s an interesting juxtaposition in their new set of data that’s worth noting.

The good news? Companies are getting more flexible in how employees spend their hours. From 2005 to 2012, the percentage of companies that allowed at least some employees to periodically change starting and quitting times grew from 68 percent to 77 percent. Also encouraging: The percentage of employers allowing at least some staffers to work at home on an occasional basis grew from 34 percent to 63 percent over the same period.

That’s the provocative question being asked by researchers in a recent paper, which was flagged by Lauren Stiller Rikleen in a Harvard Business Review blog on Thursday. The researchers — Arthur Brief, Dolly Chugh and Sreedhari D. Desai — used national surveys like the General Social Survey from the National Opinion Research Center, as well as direct results from studies of married male managers and students with full-time jobs. And they found that employed men with wives who did not work or who worked part time, compared with those with wives who worked full time, tended to:

The Facebook IPO is expected to bring in enormous amounts of money for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his employees, yet with it will also come more challenges. (Seth Wenig - AP)

“A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.”

So goes the famous line from “The Social Network,” when Napster founder Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) begins to educate a young Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook’s potential. And by that measure, at least, Zuckerberg is about to be very, very cool. The Facebook CEO’s stake in the company is expected to be worth some $20.2 billion on paper, according to estimates by the Wall Street Journal, if the stock’s IPO value ends up at the high end of the expected range. That’s not just Internet start-up rich. That’s George Soros rich.

A poster of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is covered with eggs thrown by protesters, outside the gate of JP Morgan Chase annual stockholders meeting, Tuesday, May 15, 2012. (Scott Iskowitz - AP) It’s being called Dimonfreude.

There are barely disguised smirks emanating from the canyons of Wall Street and the business press over the fact that Jamie Dimon has had to admit a mistake — and a whale of one, for that matter.

For years, the JPMorgan CEO (and America’s least-hated banker, as he was known) has worn a halo over those pinstripes. Dimon has been called President Obama’s “favorite banker”. Institutional Investor magazine has called him the country’s best CEO for two years running. And his actions during the financial crisis have been painted in patriotic terms: Press reports said he “answered the call” from then-FDIC chairman Sheila Bair to buy Washington Mutual, one of two banks he scooped up during the financial meltdown, and he has cited a patriotic duty to a country in crisis as why he took in $25 billion in government aid.

Yet now, Dimon is in the hot seat as JPMorgan confronts a $2 billion trading loss and the early stages of a criminal probe by the Justice Department.

Ron Paul’s announcement was not the typical campaign suspension — and it highlights the difference between his and former Republican candidate Newt Gingrich’s leadership styles. (Ben Margot - AP) And then there was one.

Well, sort of. Ron Paul being Ron Paul, his announcement Monday was not your typical campaign suspension. Rather, Paul said he would no longer be spending money on upcoming GOP primaries but still plans to continue seeking delegates at state-level party conventions. As he wrote in a message to supporters, Paul will “continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.”