Why you should care less about work; Robots don’t have to take jobs

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

Mentors and an understanding boss are all well and good, but the real secret to success at work could be where you sit. Pick a desk near a high achiever, the Wall Street Journal reports, and your performance could really improve — a Northwestern study found by as much as 16%. "The findings offer a silver lining to anyone annoyed at the current fad of flexible office-seating arrangements," says the WSJ.  ? Share your thoughts: #WatchWhereYouSit

Automation doesn’t have to displace workers, says Box CEO and founder Aaron Levie, although work itself may shift. “I think what we tend to see happen is way more of an augmenting of what humans are able to do, as opposed to replacing what humans do,” he said on LinkedIn’s Work in Progress podcast. And although he thinks “every industry's going to be tech-enabled,” not every business operates like a tech company. Professional or “people-to-people” services will not only still require human work, they “might become more personalized, and thus, require more people to be able to help.”  ? Share your thoughts: #JobAutomation

You don't have to work less to be happy; just care less about work. That's the refreshing opinion of Andrew Taggart, a self-described practical philosopher who says in Quartz that obsessing over work can make us miserable — so we should obsess less. Taggart does not preach indifference, however, but draws on Eastern, ancient Greek, and 18th century French thinking to describe a modern-day work-life balance. “By caring about work a little less, we can afford ourselves experiences of what is truly meaningful.” ? Share your thoughts: #CareLessAtWork

Healthy employees are more productive, new research finds, putting data behind long-held assumptions about the correlation between health and work. A study of workers who participated in an employer-sponsored health program increased their productivity by an average 4% over the following year. The greatest improvement came from those whose health noticeably improved — their productivity jumped 10.8%. And it’s a big win for corporate wellness programs: Not only did productivity improve because of better health, but because employees felt goodwill toward a company that cared about their well-being. ? Share your thoughts: #HealthyEmployees

Want to be a great leader? Get people to trust you. Counterintelligence expert Robin Derek learned all about trust working with spies — and found that the best way to build it is by putting others before yourself. “It's easy to lead people when you put their needs first, but it's almost impossible when you're only serving yourself,” he says. “If you adopt another person's goal as part of your goal, why shouldn't they follow your lead?” ? Share your thoughts: #Leadership

One last idea… “Most people don't equate boredom with innovation. But maybe that's part of the problem,” writes Science House’s Rita J. King, who says boredom is crucial to creative thinking and problem solving. When King frees herself from distraction, she sees the world differently — and then she writes all her observations down.

“The biggest ideas start with the tiniest observations, the things other people don't see. Let your mind wander and your brain will take care of the rest.”

What's your take? Join the conversation on this weekend's stories: #WatchWhereYouSit | #JobAutomation | #CareLessAtWork | #HealthyEmployees | #Leadership

Come back on Monday, and every weekday, to start your day with a roundup of the professional news you need to know.

Katie Carroll / Share this using #DailyRundown