Rating: 
Summary: Great book with good applications!
Review: I found myself laughing and having "ah-ha" experiences as I read this book! There are many good generational books out but this is the first I've read that takes the differences to work. I'm an Xer (don't mind the label!) and highly recommend this book. I know I'll be a better manager and coach because of it!
Rating: 
Summary: A must read for any manager!
Review: I've also had the opportunity to hear co-author Claire Raines speak on the topic of generational interaction in the workplace. If you have that good fortune, I suggest you go as well. Her grasp on how each genre of people fit (or don't) in the workplace is excellent and this knowledge has helped me in many management situations.
Rating:
Summary: Practical magic for anyone working with multiple generations
Review: In "Generations at Work," Zemke, Raines, and Filipczak not only deliver a valuable compilation of facts about the attitudes, habits and reactions of current generations, they offer excellent suggestions for tactics to employ when interacting with "those other guys." If you need to expand your comfort zone for working with mixed generations, of if you have to train your employees or teammates to do so, this book is your best resource. It's an operator's manual for working with others in the 21st century enterprises.
Rating: 
Summary: Stereotypes and Inaccuracies
Review: In 1991 the historians William Strauss and Neil Howe published a thesis in which they described "generational personalities", consisting of age cohorts who share similar outlooks and values. This more recent book by Ron Zemke, Claire Raines and Bob Filipczak, published by the American Management Association, takes this idea into the modern American workplace. It promotes the idea that managers must be trained to supervise distinct generational personalities within their workforce. These authors, two of whom are associated with Training magazine, boldly assert generational differences and perceive a link between business survival and the ability of managers to oversee this diversity. The authors completely fail in this endeavor. This book is a disservice to busy American managers who are told that there is yet another category of workers who need their attention. In a time when legitimate diversity concerns are a major workplace issue, it is hard to read this book as a serious attempt to move the debate forward. In this book a generation is described as all the people born in the United States in fixed periods of roughly twenty years. The categories are: Birth Years Name 1922 - 1943 Veterans 1943 - 1960 Baby Boomers 1960 - 1980 Generation X 1980 - 2000 Nexters The authors' process is to describe major political events happening during these eras - usually from a center-left perspective - and link these with personality traits supposedly shared by age cohorts. The book then describes how workers possessing exactly these traits should be managed. This results in some bewildering prescriptions. So, we are instructed that: Veterans, as opposed to others, "should be brought up to date on the history of the department"; Boomers, but no mention of others, should be "ask(ed) questions to get to the issues"; Generation X is doesn't need "warm and humane treatment". This type of deep thinking goes on and on. Where this book becomes memorable is in the area of outlandish, inaccuracies. Thus, the "Veterans" - born between 1922 and 1943 - are described as the group that won the Second World War although only a small percentage of them were even old enough for active duty in that conflict. I can't prove it, but I would wager that many times more Americans born between 1900 and 1925 fought and died in the Second World War than did Zemke et al's category of "Veterans." This superficially political book also confuses events occurring in the times of younger workers. The Baby Boomers are called the "Beat Generation" even though the Beatniks were a phenomenon of the 1950's, when the oldest Boomers were not out of high school and the youngest were unborn. "Children of the 1990's" developed a survivor mentality after watching President Nixon's resignation and pardon - even though it happened in 1974. It is typical to see writers on the generations stretch to make a point about a purported group personality. Zemke, et al, cannot even get straight when people are born. It gets worse. This book, on page 15, asserts: "Throughout the nineteenth century, the population of the United States was on slow decline. Births and immigration combined were failing to create the numbers necessary for simple replacement." In case the reader misses the point, the authors, in describing the impact of the Baby Boom which they say began in 1943, claim on page 64: "For nearly two hundred years the American population had been declining in size. The rigors of settling a raw wilderness, a tumultuous civil war, and a decade of economic depression had eroded the population of America faster than immigration and birth rate combined could replace the fallen." There is no historian, demographer, or social commentator that has ever made these claims. If they did, they would not have survived in their professions, let alone published books acclaimed in management circles. The population of the United States, of course, actually grew at fantastic rates throughout the 19th century relative to any precedent in world history. As to "replac(ing) the fallen" in the American Civil War, one gets the ideas that Zemke, et al, must think that Lincoln and the Confederacy traded nuclear missiles. Although it was America's bloodiest war, it was not a demographic catastrophe. The population of the USA increased by nearly 25% in the decade of the 1860's. I have read the entire book. I learned without nuance how the Veterans campaigned for John F. Kennedy. I read how Gerald Ford was the "acting" President. I endured trendy language and biased thinking: The "Reagan 1980's" are described as a time when "the layoff craze struck like a radioactive lizard in downtown Tokyo." Older workers - in this book called "old farts" - have to stop the "Moses act." Overall, this book presents a question, but not the one that the authors intend. Try to imagine a book in any other field that could get away with this type of language, these inanities and the sheer volume of inaccuracies. The question, then, becomes how the American Management Association, promoters like Ken Blanchard of the One-Minute Manager, Training magazine, historian Neil Howe who calls this "the best book out there on the generations in the workplace", and a long list of corporate clients can allow themselves to be associated with it. In my view, there is an answer to this query. There are many difficult issues in the modern American workplace. However, some managers and others would rather whip up a phony crisis having to do with so-called new generational differences then deal with real problems. I may be wrong. Possibly, as Strauss and Howe would argue, there is a "generational personality" that we keep through the life cycle. There may be a relevance to the world of work, or even, as Zemke et al would have it, to business survival. But this book does not make that case.
Rating:
Summary: Stereotypes and Inaccuracies
Review: In 1991 the historians William Strauss and Neil Howe published a thesis in which they described "generational personalities", consisting of age cohorts who share similar outlooks and values. This more recent book by Ron Zemke, Claire Raines and Bob Filipczak, published by the American Management Association, takes this idea into the modern American workplace. It promotes the idea that managers must be trained to supervise distinct generational personalities within their workforce. These authors, two of whom are associated with Training magazine, boldly assert generational differences and perceive a link between business survival and the ability of managers to oversee this diversity. The authors completely fail in this endeavor. This book is a disservice to busy American managers who are told that there is yet another category of workers who need their attention. In a time when legitimate diversity concerns are a major workplace issue, it is hard to read this book as a serious attempt to move the debate forward. In this book a generation is described as all the people born in the United States in fixed periods of roughly twenty years. The categories are: Birth Years Name 1922 - 1943 Veterans 1943 - 1960 Baby Boomers 1960 - 1980 Generation X 1980 - 2000 Nexters The authors' process is to describe major political events happening during these eras - usually from a center-left perspective - and link these with personality traits supposedly shared by age cohorts. The book then describes how workers possessing exactly these traits should be managed. This results in some bewildering prescriptions. So, we are instructed that: Veterans, as opposed to others, "should be brought up to date on the history of the department"; Boomers, but no mention of others, should be "ask(ed) questions to get to the issues"; Generation X is doesn't need "warm and humane treatment". This type of deep thinking goes on and on. Where this book becomes memorable is in the area of outlandish, inaccuracies. Thus, the "Veterans" - born between 1922 and 1943 - are described as the group that won the Second World War although only a small percentage of them were even old enough for active duty in that conflict. I can't prove it, but I would wager that many times more Americans born between 1900 and 1925 fought and died in the Second World War than did Zemke et al's category of "Veterans." This superficially political book also confuses events occurring in the times of younger workers. The Baby Boomers are called the "Beat Generation" even though the Beatniks were a phenomenon of the 1950's, when the oldest Boomers were not out of high school and the youngest were unborn. "Children of the 1990's" developed a survivor mentality after watching President Nixon's resignation and pardon - even though it happened in 1974. It is typical to see writers on the generations stretch to make a point about a purported group personality. Zemke, et al, cannot even get straight when people are born. It gets worse. This book, on page 15, asserts: "Throughout the nineteenth century, the population of the United States was on slow decline. Births and immigration combined were failing to create the numbers necessary for simple replacement." In case the reader misses the point, the authors, in describing the impact of the Baby Boom which they say began in 1943, claim on page 64: "For nearly two hundred years the American population had been declining in size. The rigors of settling a raw wilderness, a tumultuous civil war, and a decade of economic depression had eroded the population of America faster than immigration and birth rate combined could replace the fallen." There is no historian, demographer, or social commentator that has ever made these claims. If they did, they would not have survived in their professions, let alone published books acclaimed in management circles. The population of the United States, of course, actually grew at fantastic rates throughout the 19th century relative to any precedent in world history. As to "replac(ing) the fallen" in the American Civil War, one gets the ideas that Zemke, et al, must think that Lincoln and the Confederacy traded nuclear missiles. Although it was America's bloodiest war, it was not a demographic catastrophe. The population of the USA increased by nearly 25% in the decade of the 1860's. I have read the entire book. I learned without nuance how the Veterans campaigned for John F. Kennedy. I read how Gerald Ford was the "acting" President. I endured trendy language and biased thinking: The "Reagan 1980's" are described as a time when "the layoff craze struck like a radioactive lizard in downtown Tokyo." Older workers - in this book called "old farts" - have to stop the "Moses act." Overall, this book presents a question, but not the one that the authors intend. Try to imagine a book in any other field that could get away with this type of language, these inanities and the sheer volume of inaccuracies. The question, then, becomes how the American Management Association, promoters like Ken Blanchard of the One-Minute Manager, Training magazine, historian Neil Howe who calls this "the best book out there on the generations in the workplace", and a long list of corporate clients can allow themselves to be associated with it. In my view, there is an answer to this query. There are many difficult issues in the modern American workplace. However, some managers and others would rather whip up a phony crisis having to do with so-called new generational differences then deal with real problems. I may be wrong. Possibly, as Strauss and Howe would argue, there is a "generational personality" that we keep through the life cycle. There may be a relevance to the world of work, or even, as Zemke et al would have it, to business survival. But this book does not make that case.
Rating: 
Summary: Fetishization of Boomers & Millennials
Review: Inspired by Neil Strauss's and Neil Howe's groundbreaking generational studies, "Generations At Work" is a readable and easily understandable primer to successfully understanding and coping with a heretofore unprecedented socioeconomic phenomenon--a workplace simultaneously containing several generations; from elders in their 70s to young people in their 20s.
The authors do a good job of explaining and describing each group's attitudes, shared beliefs, investment practices, buying habits and work methods--all of these having been shaped by different historical events (at least in the USA) and the relevant generational experiences derived from those events. The book also contains a series of sample profiles and vignettes which are a useful basis for comprehending and motivating (and marketing and selling to) various age groups.
On the minus side, far too much obsessive attention and empty praise has been generously lavished on the still-untested Millennials--almost to the point of evangelistically fetishizing them much like the Soviet Communist Party had for decades emptily and shrilly fetishized their "Heroes of Labor" and similar groups. I suspect this approach (with its hardy and predictable but now-less-obvious condescending and dismissive attitude toward Generation X) reflects the arrogant Boomer sensibility of the book's authors. Also, this sensibility distressingly takes a far too comfortable and friendly view toward conventional corporatism, bureaucracy, "centralized authority," "obedience," and "large-scale collectivism"--when our increasingly fragmented, rapidly changing, networked and multipolar world is generally leaving such paradigms (and the institutions, attitudes and politico-economic theories such paradigms spawned) in the dust.
The underlying agenda of this book seems be that, as a group, the "we will never die" Boomers, despite their apparent claims to the contrary, will hand off their control-freak worldviews to their Millennial offspring, while barely tolerating "Veterans" and "Xers" (seemingly hoping the former will quickly jackknife into coffins or nursing homes and that the latter will remain lifelong subordinates and assistants to Boomers and their Millennial heirs apparent.) Also, there were several noticeable spelling and grammatical errors in the book (the confusion of "proscribed" with "prescribed" for one)--not very complimentary to the Boomer authors and their peers who self-referentially pride themselves on being more sophisticated, better educated and more voracious readers than "the rest of us."
Rating:
Summary: Generations in Health Care
Review: Managing the many different types of people in health care is very challenging! I already knew about the difficulties that dealing with many different disciplines and cultures presented, but this book gave me a new way to look at the different cultures of age! This book was written in a very easy to read format, with lots of information on the personalities, attitudes, and work habits of the different generations. The practical tips in this book were very helpful to my own managerial practice. Even though this book used business examples, I found it very applicable to the health care setting. Often, problems that are found in business are multiplied in health care because we deal with people who are sick, injured, or at the end of life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has to work with people who spring from different generations.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read for every generation
Review: Since reading Generations at Work, I find myself thinking about the book often. I have a better understanding of the people around me - those with whom I work and live. The book not only defines the characteristics of the generations but also the circumstances of history which created their attitudes and thought process. I was particularly interested in the importance of mentoring and the optimum recommended mentoring style for each group.
Rating:
Summary: Into the mind of your peers, employees, friends and families
Review: Sterotypes not hardly. Inaccurate not hardly. What this book teaches you is how to identify with the person whom you are communicating. Life changing events are discussed that help you understand the ways and whys of a person. I often use this book to formulate a little Question/Answer with peers and students when teaching. I don't classify folks by their 'year' born - I classify them by events. Here are some questions I ask based on my reading of the book: Where were you when you learned of pearl harbor?
How did you handle the depression? Where were you when you learned of JFK being killed?
Where were you when the vietnam war ended? Where were you when reagan was shot?
Where were you when the challenger blew up? Where were you when windows 95 released?
Where were you on September 11th? So - the book is well worth the money. Buy the hardcover - IT IS A KEEPER!!
Rating:
Summary: Into the mind of your peers, employees, friends and families
Review: Sterotypes not hardly. Inaccurate not hardly. What this book teaches you is how to identify with the person whom you are communicating. Life changing events are discussed that help you understand the ways and whys of a person. I often use this book to formulate a little Question/Answer with peers and students when teaching. I don't classify folks by their 'year' born - I classify them by events. Here are some questions I ask based on my reading of the book: Where were you when you learned of pearl harbor?
How did you handle the depression? Where were you when you learned of JFK being killed?
Where were you when the vietnam war ended? Where were you when reagan was shot?
Where were you when the challenger blew up? Where were you when windows 95 released?
Where were you on September 11th? So - the book is well worth the money. Buy the hardcover - IT IS A KEEPER!!
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