Two professors at Wharton report the findings of their survey on the impact of the change in marriage and divorce patterns on the workplace (Read I Do’s and Don’ts: How Changes in Marriage, Divorce and Childbirth Are Redefining the Workplace).

I was suprised to read that marriage and divorce rates are at an all-time low (though thinking about this some more, that is probably a big “duh.”) The other duh is that women are staying in the workplace longer — and not at home with babies.

In the past, the theory of marriage was a sort of specialization paradigm: You nurture and I’ll bring home the bacon. But now “marriages are now built more around ‘leisure and consumption complementarities,’ which increasingly pairs men and women with similar incomes and interests,” says the article. If we like to buy and do the same stuff, we’re made for each other?

But what’s the impact on the business? From here it’s a bit of a leap, so bear with me: if women are staying in the workplace longer….there’s more opportunity for men and women to meet in a romantic way at work(!). Sorry, but I’ve suddenly gone from duh to huh. And then this nugget:

There is enormous pressure for the workplace to combine this melting of home and work. Firms add lounges and kitchens that are comfortable and well designed: They look like a living room where you can enjoy your coffee. If you have couples without children in the same workplace, there may not be much of a divide between home and work.

Yipes! I don’t know about you, but I have never confused the comfort of my home with the cube at work.

Does the noncompete clause have an effect on the day-to-day behavior of employees? Well, yes — and to the very employees who are most desirable.

While noncompetes do constrain mobility in a demonstrable way, more important was that these effects were amplified for inventors with particular characteristics. As [research author Matt] Marx explains, the results suggest that “star” or “specialist” inventors wishing to explore career opportunities may need to look outside a state that enforces noncompetes.

Marx, it turns out, has first-hand experience in the noncompete world. And he discovered the easy way that a noncompete signed in Boston didn’t hold much water in Silicon Valley.

Think that YouTube and its like is just a flash in the screen? These 25 new businesses will change your mind — they’re heavy on the video sharing/filing/sharing. But there’s also a company building wi-fi hotspots,  a couple of companies targeting the exuberant online advertising market, another that lets your cellphone pull up your office desktop.

Seems we are more dissatisfied at work than ever. A CareerBuilder survey says that among workers under 25 only 39% say they are satisfied with their jobs. It does beg the question what jobs your typical under-25-year-old has, but the second unhappiest group were the 45 to 54-year-olds.

The simple poll accompanying the piece splits at 23% each for “love my job” and “all the above,” which includes pay, commute, boss and stress.

Wiki knock-offs need to learn a simple lesson: Focus wins the day. Just as a print magazine has a personality and an audience and a specific focus (food, household hints, clothing), so the crowdsourcing sites of recent vintage need to cultivate its gardens. Readers and writers want guidelines — at least something to rally against. Total freedom is like the animated short in which anything goes because anything can. But is anybody watching?

A neat list of ideas to watch in 2007 includes:

Maybe Malcolm Gladwell didn’t get it right. New research shows that rather than a minority of influentials leading, the masses do.  These researchers found that “the principal requirement for what we call “global cascades”—the widespread propagation of influence through networks—is the presence not of a few influentials but, rather, of a critical mass of easily influenced people….”

• Sometimes, it’s all you’ve got to give: hope that things will get better. And sometimes, that’s all it takes.
• Fire the engineers, let the users take over. Okay, not that extreme, but more companies are realizing that their customers aren’t waiting to be told about the next product innovation — they’re doing it themselves.
• The power of sleep — sometimes you just can consciously wrestle your way through a problem.
•  And, from one of our favorite thinkers, David Weinberger, the insidious side of accountability, which claims there’s a right and wrong answer to everything. “Accountabalism is a type of superstitious thinking that allows us to live in a state of denial about just how little control we individuals have over our environment.”

Lots more. Good reads.

Your business is small, but your ideas and growth potential is big. Where do you turn for advice? There’s a new helping hand: The Alternative Board.  This peer advisory group “brings together small and midsize business owners from noncompeting companies to share their collective wisdom and act as a professional sounding board.”

Around since 1990, TAB grew out of informal groups of entrepreneurs sharing what they share best: advice. Today the company has 140 franchises in almost 40 states with 3,000 business owners and board members.

Some advice and recommended books that will help you make the right hire for the job — and keep that hire headed in the right direction once onboard.

Book include:

• Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People, by Bradford D. Smart
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler

I’d add another: Smarts, by my pal Chuck Martin. A self-diagnostic helps you figure out what you’re naturally good at (and bad) and offers suggestions to help you in careers that enhance your own skills. Better yet, use it on your employees and stop complaining about their being slow when you really value their carefulness.

Well, you probably don’t. Enter the personal brand trainer who, for a scant $15,000, will tell you better than your ex what’s wrong with you.

Professionally, that is. And executives who are leaving you in the dust are paying for the service. One used the service to help him develop and promote a new business; another faced her outer harshness and learned to tone it down.

Among the advice: Pick a signature color and stick with it. Well, that was free. Maybe you need to pay the full price.

In 2003, MIT’s started its “OpenCourseWare” program, which posts the syllabus and class notes for more than 1,500 courses online for anyone who wants them. Recently it’s been joined by other such as Tufts and the University of Notre Dame. Stanford’s classes will be on iTunes by the end of the year; Berkeley’s already are.

How about the syllabus from MIT’s Sloan School Literature, Ethics and Authority. Or the Economics of Open Content from University of California at Berkeley.

 Maybe you’ll be listening to something other than Rodrigo Y Gabriella on your iPod at the gym.