Benefitting from shorter breaks, avoiding workplace victim-blaming, and more top insights

What’s happening in the world of work: The Saturday edition of the Daily Rundown highlights the business trends, perspectives, and hot topics you need to know to work smarter. Read on and join the conversation. 

Holidays alone don’t solve your burnout woes: The benefits of the standard one or two-week vacation are often short-lived, writes Quartz’s Sarah Todd. Two-thirds of respondents to a 2018 Psychological Association survey said that their post-vacation positive vibes dissipated within a few days. And many of us stress out at work as we prepare to take a week off, only to face a pile of things to do when we return. One potential solution? Carving out small slices of relaxation every day. For every 90 to 120 minutes of work, try to give yourself 5 to 10 minutes of downtime, suggests organisational consultant Paula Davis-Laack. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

How leaders can avoid victim-blaming: Managers are likely to blame — and discount the performance of — employees who are mistreated by coworkers, according to research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Even worse, leaders are prone to excuse perpetrators’ behavior if they are close to those employees or if they are top performers. Managers can root out such harmful biases by taking a page out of the judicial training playbook, the researchers suggest. That requires learning to separate relevant data from the irrelevant when gauging employees’ behavior and performance. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

You Asked: “I've worked in many different industries. Recently, I've moved from pharmacy to retail management. It feels like there is a stigma around retail store management. It feels like there is an assumption that none of our skills are transferable. As someone with 10+ years of leadership experience trying to transition out of retail, how do I get recruiters and hiring managers to look past the title of what I do and focus on the substance?” —Nick M., retail store manager at Walgreens

• “Two of the best corporate employees I’ve ever hired have come from the retail industry. As a long time career coach and hiring manager, I’ve found that professionals with retail experience are extremely agile, adept at handling unexpected situations and unusual requests, and can anticipate customer needs better than most. As a career switcher moving from retail to another industry, do the work for the hiring manager by making the connection between these skills and the direct impact they’ll have in the new role. Don’t assume hiring managers will take the time to do this. Also, highlight your past accomplishments when switching to/from various industries to demonstrate your previous success with delivering results in new environments.” — Dawn Graham, executive MBA career director at The Wharton School (Read more on this topic from Dawn Graham.)

Looking for career advice from the pros? Submit your questions in the comments with #YouAsked and we’ll take care of the rest.

What doesn’t kill you… Early setbacks have the power to push people to immense success, reports BBC Capital’s Ian Leslie. A study of Olympic medalists by UVA economist Adam Leive found that those who nearly missed the gold led longer, more successful lives than the top finishers. Another study, of scientists, found that those who suffered early on ultimately published research of greater impact than their more fortunate peers. While certainly not all who initially struggle thrive later on, but those who do manage to transform pain into motivation, writes Leslie. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

The ‘coffee shop effect’ is real: Working with just a bit of noise in the background — whether it’s the hum of an air conditioner or music pumping through your headphones — can improve our perception and our mood, according to research from Edith Cowan University’s Onno van der Groen. Such beneficial noise, referred to as stochastic resonance, may rouse our brains to consider issues and information from different perspectives. The key, though, is to find our very own Goldilocks level of noise — not so much that it’s distracting, but not so little that it’s easy to miss. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

One last idea:  It’s critical that we make sure to take in the praise and accolades we receive. But hip hop artist and actor Common reminds us of the importance of not letting such positive feedback distract us too much from our primary aims. 

“I never felt like I've made it. Never. I've always felt like 'I'm about to be better.' Any awards that come ... I value them, but I do my best to focus on the art and put my passion into that.” 

What's your take? Join the conversations on today's stories in the comments.

— Scott Olster