Welcome back to the Peer Suite Agenda, your weekly briefing on what matters for your career, network, and next move.

Inside This Edition:

• From the blog: Why now is a great time for a mid-year career check-in and the questions to ask yourself
• On our radar: A better way to disagree with your manager; what the EU's new AI rules mean for you; the verdict on the UK's four-day week trial; and a 15-minute TED talk on negotiation
• Resources: A free, always-open leadership course from the UN Women Training Centre
• RSVP to events: Our Women's Curated Networking Morning at The Roof Gardens in September, and a virtual masterclass on energy, performance and ageing well

We are slowly creeping towards September 1st, which feels like the official end to summer and when you can expect the pace to pick back up at work. So, with one week left of the slow period, now is a good time for you to do a quick career check in.

Why now? Because with just four months left of the year you should be intentional about where you spend your time at work and how that will position you for the end of year conversations on pay and promotions.

With that in mind, this week we're resharing The Autumn Reset, which sets out a simple way to use these final weeks of summer to decide what September through December should look like and the priorities to set yourself when it comes to work and life.

💬 DISAGREEING WELL Molly Graham and Ashley Murphy's new WorkLife FAQ episode tackles a question that is often avoided until we're mid-conflict, how do you disagree with someone senior without it costing you? Their answer, try "disagree and let's see" instead of "disagree and commit", treats the decision as an experiment with a time horizon and a way to measure it, rather than a point that either person has to win.

🤖 THE EU'S AI RULES ARE NOW LIVE From the 2nd August, new transparency rules under the EU's AI Act came into force, meaning AI-generated content used to inform the public has to be labelled, and anyone using AI professionally is expected to understand roughly how the tools they rely on actually work. DLA Piper has a clear breakdown of what changed and who it applies to.

📅 THE FOUR-DAY WEEK VERDICT IS IN The latest UK four-day week pilot has wrapped, and every one of the 17 companies involved decided to keep it, with almost two-thirds of staff reporting less burnout and higher life satisfaction.

💷 THE PENSIONS COMMISSION'S WARNING The government's Pensions Commission published its interim findings this year. This figure stands out, 45% of working-age adults, around 18 million people, are not saving into a pension at all, many of them while in full-time work. You probably have a workplace pension you are contributing to, so here is a prompt to take a look at your contributions and how it is being invested.

🎤 THE NEGOTIATION TALK TO WATCH Business consultant Kathryn Valentine's TED talk breaks down why women negotiate just as often as men but succeed about half as often. She sets out a clear equation for framing an ask so it lands as a fair trade rather than a favour. The talk is about 15 minutes and perfect listen while you get ready for work in the morning.

UN Women Free Training

The UN Women Training Centre runs a free eLearning campus with self-paced courses on leadership, governance and inclusive workplace practice. There's no cost and no deadline, so it's there whenever you have a spare evening. Its flagship course has been taken by more than 700,000 people worldwide, runs to about two and a half hours, and ends with a certificate.

Thank you for being here, I hope this edition was useful as you start thinking about getting back into things at work.

Have a lovely last week of August and I look forward to seeing you at our September events.

Warmly,

Rebecca

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