Lunch breaks are a good time to shoot a quick message to someone in your network, read a book or think about your goals, experts say. Unplugging yourself completely for a short time is also a perfectly valid way to spend your lunch.

You should feel comfortable speaking out against comments that offend you at work, particularly if they are racist or sexist, writes Amy Gallo. However, don't assume that the person speaking was intentionally trying to offend you.

Success may rely more on the ability to hold a conversation than on technical training or raw intelligence, writes Skip Prichard. In this interview, he asks Judith Glaser about her work studying conversational intelligence and the three levels of conversation people can achieve.

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg says the company is expanding paid-leave benefits for employees faced with caring for a sick family member or mourning the death of a loved one. The company is giving workers up to 20 days of paid leave for the death of an immediate family member, up to six weeks of paid leave to care for a sick relative, and up to three days of leave to take care of a family member with a short-term illness.

All women suffer a loss of income when they have children, and the penalty is largest for highly skilled white women, according to research appearing in the journal American Sociological Review. Women in high-paying jobs may suffer a 10% hit to future wages when they have children, the analysis shows.

Researchers in Japan found that cats are able to recall what food bowl they ate from 15 minutes prior, suggesting that cats, like dogs and people, can remember specific events. Episodic memory is associated with a degree of self-awareness, and the finding might help researchers better understand feline-human bonds, researcher Saho Takagi said.