Fuse: Making Sense of the Cogenerational Workplace.

• Author: Sweeney, Paul
• Position: Book review

By Jim Finkelstein with Mary Gavin. Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press, 210 pages. $19.95

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Baby boomers may use email, the Internet and texting as modes of communication. Yet they value interpersonal interactions--so much so that boomers readily pick up the telephone, arrange face-to-face meetings and strive to make "meaningful connections."

Now in their 50s to mid-60s, boomers predominate in positions of authority. Goal-oriented, they have advanced in their careers by dint of hard work and much sacrifice. They're not surrendering the hard-won reins of power anytime soon.

But here come the millennials. Born between 1980 and 1995, they're barely out of short pants, yet already they're tagged with a plethora of sobriquets: Generation Y, Generation Next, The Google Generation and even Adultolescents.

Having grown up with laptops and cellphones and cut their teeth on video games, they are tech-savvy. Frequently the products of divorce and remarriage, they've grown up color-blind and people-oriented.

At its best, this cohort is socially and environmentally conscious, passionate and collaborative. Yet millennial are also perceived as undisciplined slackers--"loud, pierced, unapologetic and entitled"--and unprepared for the nine-to-five.

Most do not expect to stay longer than a few years at a job and, while pay is important, they're equally as interested in doing creative work and being respected. Following a job interview, they're "surprised when they don't get a courtesy note thanking them for applying for a position."

For their part, boomers will dutifully arrive at a job interview promptly and without complaint. They'll follow up with a thank you note, often hand-written on stationery sent through the mail, "the old-fashioned way." Once on the job, they'll endure boredom and duress to secure pay and benefits.

Yet, as Jim Finkelstein notes in Fuse: Making Sense of the Cogenerational Workplace, the sheer numbers of millenials and their claim on the future make it imperative that boomers not only accept them and their values but welcome them and build alliances. For that matter, Finkelstein, who holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, worked for a Big Five accounting firm and is founder of the consultancy FutureSense, recommends that everyone from 18 to 80 learn to adapt, cooperate and collaborate.

To that end, he laces his treatise with a wealth of suggestions...