Employees placed on a performance improvement plan should ask for specifics about what's expected of them and request training if a lack of skills is holding them back, writes learning specialist Stacy Pollack. If personal issues are affecting your work, let your manager know and seek out employer-sponsored support programs.

Several things hold us back without our realizing it, including our ego, which may prevent us from taking risks, and a fear of not measuring up, which refuses to acknowledge progress already made, writes career coach Dawn Graham. People often suffer from a lack of focus on industry trends and disengage from others at work, which decreases their influence.

A study of MBA students who entered leadership roles reveals the importance of having multiple contacts across diverse groups, writes study co-author Brian Uzzi. The research shows both men and women access job information with a wide circle of connections, but women also need a small group of professional friends to help them learn the best way to pursue a position.

Generation X and millennials would gain the most from a federal minimum wage increase, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute. An increase would benefit 53% of employees ages 25 to 54, 9% of teenagers and 14.6% of workers age 55 or older.

If you're thinking about leaving a job due to conflict, it may be worth staying if your work is helping you achieve career goals, writes Gabriella DiDio. Find a source of support and consider conflict as an opportunity to sharpen your assertiveness.

You'll stand a better chance of connecting with someone you emailed but don't know if you do the research, writes Olivia Nicolaus. "If you put effort into writing a really thoughtful email and emphasize that you admire their work and want to contribute to their team, it will probably go over well and they'll have a higher chance of responding," she writes.

The National Day of Unplugging starts today at sundown and lasts 24 hours. The organization Reboot started the day 10 years ago to encourage people to escape "the relentless deluge of information emanating from the now ubiquitous and ever-present screens that dominate our daily lives."

Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, France, Latvia and Luxembourg are the only six nations that have equal rights for men and women, according to a report by the World Bank that studied 35 aspects of legal equality in 187 countries. The categories included marriage laws, property ownership and job protections, and the research found that overall women only have 75% of the legal rights as men.