Currently, when I click on the settings button in the top navigation bar, I get to the settings area, which is nice.

But that button behaves in a different way to all other buttons next to it: search, notifications, help, time tracking and profile all open a dropdown overlay. Clicking on the settings button moves me to a different window - which means that I can't go back when clicking on it again. That surprised me the first few times I clicked on it - since I didn't expect to get pulled out of my current context due to the different behaviour of the surrounding buttons.

Would it be possible to make the button go back to the previous context while I am in the settings pane?

Alternatively the link to the settings area could be set next to the nav-elements in the top bar.

Alternatively the settings button could just open a small overlay like the other buttons in that area - that overlay can then contain a link to the 'full' settings app.