How is a job like a romantic relationship? Well, sometimes the ideal doesn't match the reality. And then, the breakup can be messy.

Does self-employment pose less risk than getting a traditional job? In a column for Lateral Action, Joel D. Canfield proffers four compelling reasons that the self-employed are actually safer than 9-to-5 folks. Have the artists, entrepreneurs and freelancers finally won out?

All eyes have been on Marissa Mayer since she was appointed CEO of Yahoo, and in the latest round of news, it seems she's brought some perks inspired by those at her old Google gig. Can the new additions rev up employee engagement?

The intrepid blogger who wishes to cover the effects of stress faces a dilemma: Since everyone agrees that some kinds of stress are bad for you, and talking about stress only seems to make it worse, is it really helpful to bring up the subject at all?

Most kids resist the pressure to go into lucrative science and math-related fields. (That's partly why those careers pay so well.) Other young folks, though, can't seem to resist number-crunching's allure. One such future geek is Andrew. He told PayScale not only about his computer engineering ambitions, but just how hard he is going to work. This kid is going places.

Writer Eric K. Auld has been using Craigslist to scour for jobs, and in a column for Lifehacker, he outlined how he recently posted a fake Craigslist job ad to get a better sense of the local job market and the kinds of applicants that form his competition. What's Joe Jobseeker up against when he applies for an administrative assistant job online?

Offices and health clubs usually have two things in common: industrial grade carpeting and free water. That's about it. We're constantly reading stories about how bad modern offices are for us: the air might be toxic, the snack machine is making us fat, our chairs are trying to kill us, and so on. What's a health-minded office worker to do?

Think stereotypes are harmless? Consider this: Recent research shows that the gender gap in science jobs isn't solely due to fewer women choosing these professions. In part, it's because more women than men drop out of these fields after a few years. And stereotyping might be the reason.

Every Friday we round up the salary trends, career stories and job news that you may have missed during the past week.

A recent headline in the Huffington Post asked, "Why Are Women Doctors Getting Paid So Much Less Than Their Male Counterparts?" The accompanying article maintained that female doctors earned, on average, $12,000 a year less than male doctors -- as long as those doctors worked in research or academia.

"Women physician-scientists are paid much less than their male counterparts, researchers found, with a salary difference that over the course of a career could pay for a college education, a spacious house, or a retirement nest egg," wrote Lindsay Tanner.

Bad news, indeed -- if it's true. But do these numbers, as the headline suggests, really apply to all doctors in the U.S.? PayScale decided to see what we could learn from comparisons to our data.

Everyone's heard the old adage that it's easier to get a job when you have a job. Unfortunately, no one has come up with a pithy aphorism to help you figure out how to find time to go to an interview while still holding down your current gig.

Women may earn less than men on average, but in some careers, women out-earn men as a matter of course. This infographic outlines some of the ways in which the ladies leapfrog their male colleagues in terms of salary.

As the 2012 London Olympics kick off, we at PayScale are monitoring a storyline that has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with remote working. London businesses in nearly every sector are encouraging employees to work from home as much as possible during the two weeks of the Olympics to cut down on traffic. Will this citywide experiment finally make telecommuting mainstream?

By Adam Phillabaum, @adamb0mb

We released the latest version of the PayScale consumer website yesterday. Here is the rundown of what we shipped, and why it's great.

School Pages in the Research Center

PayScale generates a lot of really interesting reports and rankings, like our College ROI and College Salary Report. But, we've never made the school rankings available in our Research Center. So, we integrated our rankings, data from the government, from Wikipedia, and from you (our users) to create a resource for prospective students, current students, parents and alumni. 

Many offices have an open-pet policy in which employees can bring their furry friends into work; others even let a prized pooch become a company mascot of sorts, boosting morale and winning over clients. Should office dogs become a part of every workplace?

Brian Mandelbaum is readying a 24-hour social media ad agency that will man companies' online presence all day, every day when it launches later this year. Marketers have traditionally stuck to the Monday through Friday workweek and the 9-to-5 workday, but Mandelbaum says there is an unmet client need for round-the-clock online engagement. How will this always-on model affect employees?

How confident are you that the work you've done in school will pay off with the career and lifestyle you want? PayScale gathered experts for a Google+ hangout to share their insights on this topic and help educate current students.

Leaders in Silicon Valley, a hotbed of the latest gadgets, technology innovations and the geeks who create them, are increasingly expressing their concern about technology addiction. Have those who drive our tech-obsessed culture finally reached their breaking point?

We may be complaining about cash-strapped areas stateside, but the Argentine town of Bialet Masse definitely takes the cake. Mayor Gustavo Pueyo announced a raffle to determine which of the town's 92 workers will get paid first. Really?

If you read this blog post yesterday, you might have done so while eating a big pile of rabbit food. That's because Monday is the biggest day of the week for salad sales, according to several salad bar chains in New York and Florida.

"We think it's because people are a little repentant about their weekend," Colin McCabe, founder of Chop’t told Bloomberg Businessweek. The salad chain, which has stores in New York and D.C., reports selling 10 percent more salads on Monday. (Although sometimes Tuesday sales are higher.)