The pros of a five-hour work day, how to break bad habits, 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. 

Consider the five-hour work day: As employees increasingly prioritize workplace flexibility, a German tech consulting firm is giving a 25-hour workweek a shot, The Wall Street Journal’s Eric Morath writes. Rheingans Digital Enabler, a 16-person startup, lays down a few ground rules. The firm has banned social media use, staffers check email twice a day and small talk is not encouraged. The results? Employees are just as productive, and they have more time for life outside of work, according to Morath. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

The key to breaking unwanted habits: Looking to turn a new leaf? Skip the resolutions or anything that relies on willpower, writes The New Yorker’s Jerome Groopman. Change your environment instead, according to research from social psychologist Wendy Wood. Even for those of us who have impressive self-control, the best way to avoid unwanted habits is to simply make it really annoying to fulfill them. Introducing such friction can help us form new, more desirable habits. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

You Asked: “I’m in my mid-thirties. I’ve worked In technology since a very young age and I’m currently a senior director at a big corporation. I’ve become discouraged with the corporate environment. Now I'm planning to pursue a doctorate in psychology. But how do I uproot everything that I’ve come to understand, now later in my life, with more debt and more family responsibility?” — Chris C., New York City-based marketing director ? Join the conversation. 

• “When considering a major career switch, be sure you’re running TO the new opportunity, and not FROM a bad situation. Are you sure the challenges that discourage you in corporate won’t be the same (or worse) in a new field? As a first step, revisit your values. It’s likely there’s a conflict between these and your current environment. Then, search for a middle ground. There are likely companies where you can apply your technology skills that are less soul sucking. Simultaneously, take a few psychology courses and shadow practitioners to see if this career is a possible fit. Clarity comes through action. Just a few small steps forward can change your view enough to see a ton of satisfying new possibilities.” — Dawn Graham, director of career management at The Wharton School and author of “Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers - and Seize Success”
• “Congrats on beginning the process of finding a better fit for you! Like you suggested, completing a doctorate in psychology is a major commitment and can take between 5-7 years. However, being a psychologist can be an amazing career choice because it is a versatile degree and it’s incredibly rewarding to help improve other people’s lives. I suggest you ask yourself a few questions: Why am I pursuing the doctorate specifically? Is there something that I want to do with the degree that cannot be done with a master’s level degree in social work or counseling? Is my family on board and are they fully aware of the impact to our family life in terms of my availability due demand of the program or changes to our financial situation? What’s my timeline to prepare for applying? Applying for a doctoral program is a very different process than applying for other levels of higher education because the programs accept usually only a few students a year. I would encourage you to find a mentor or a career coach with expertise in this area to help you with the process.” — Lisa Orbe-Austin, psychologist, executive coach and author of “Own Your Greatness”

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

When to trust your gut: Relying on your instinct gets a bad rap, but there are times when it is useful, even advisable, writes Harvard Business School’s Laura Huang. During high stakes situations where there simply isn’t enough information to make a reliable prediction, going with your gut — the kind you have gained from experience — can push you off the fence in time to benefit from whatever decision you make. Such calls can be critical, particularly in emergencies, where no decision may be the worst decision of all. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

Women managers face feedback battle: Both male and female employees are more likely to respond negatively to critical professional feedback when the feedback giver is a woman, according to Middlebury College’s Martin Abel. After studying 2,700 online transcription workers, Abel found that employees of both genders were more likely to come away dissatisfied and less likely to accept future assignments after receiving critical feedback from a female boss. This reaction may be due to ingrained expectations about how different genders act as managers. Simply being aware of this bias may help matters. And Abel found that these differing expectations are less prevalent among younger workers. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

One last idea:  It’s all too easy to let our inner critic — the voice in our head that always seems to have a negative opinion at the ready — get the best of us. But psychology professor Steven Hayes reminds us that we have the power to put that internal naysayer in its place. ? Here’s what people are saying. 

“If we learn to think of our internal voice as that of an advisor rather than a dictator, it can become enormously helpful to us. We come to see that our mind itself is not bad or harmful as long as we don’t let it rigidly dictate our behavior.”

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

— Scott Olster