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CNN | Who's winning the thermostat wars in your home?

CNN | Who's winning the thermostat wars in your home?

The answer to that depends on whether you are the man or the woman of the house, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS.

"It seems like in some cases there's a dynamic where one person is responsible or takes ownership over the thermostat and other people don't get to have input into that," said lead author Nicole Sintov, assistant professor of behavior, decision-making and sustainability at Ohio State University.

"We had roommates in the study, we had spouses, we had couples who were not spouses," said Sintov, who studies how people make decisions that affect the environment, a field called conservation psychology. "And we do see that gender plays a significant role here."

The study found men thought any discussion about setting the home's temperature lower or higher was a "compromise" or an "agreement."

CNN | Microsoft tried a 4-day workweek in Japan. Productivity jumped 40%

CNN | Microsoft tried a 4-day workweek in Japan. Productivity jumped 40%

A growing number of smaller companies are adopting a four-day workweek. Now the results of a recent trial at Microsoft (MSFT) suggest it could work even for the biggest businesses.

The company introduced a program this summer in Japan called the "Work Life Choice Challenge," which shut down its offices every Friday in August and gave all employees an extra day off each week.

The results were promising: While the amount of time spent at work was cut dramatically, productivity β€” measured by sales per employee β€” went up by almost 40% compared to the same period the previous year, the company said in a statement last week.