This newly revised and updated edition is the product of now almost thirty years of ongoing research on young people in the workplace. At this point, all told, more than half a million individuals, from more than 400 organizations, have contributed to our surveys, interviews, and focus groups since we first began our workplace research in 1993. First and foremost, I always thank everyone who has participated in this research over the years. Without you there would be no RainmakerThinking, Inc. and this book surely would not exist.

Thanks also to the very many business leaders who bring me in to learn from and help your managers facing the real challenges every day in the real world. To the hundreds of thousands who have attended my keynote addresses and seminars, thanks for listening, for laughing, for sharing the wisdom of your experience, for pushing me with the really tough questions, for your kindness, and for teaching me. My greatest intellectual debt is to the managers who have participated in our assessments and seminars—I've learned so much from helping them wrestle with their very real management problems in the real world. Special thanks to those managers whose real stories appear in this book; I've mixed up the ancillary details to help keep the stories anonymous. I also thank the many business leaders and managers who have expressed so much confidence in our work over the years.

To my colleagues at RainmakerThinking, thank you each and all for your commitment and wonderful contributions to this enterprise every day. Special thanks to Kim Math, our amazing COO, and Cheryl Wolansky, the best assistant I have ever had the pleasure of working with; both of whom have raised their own Gen Zers. And thanks to our two Gen Z team members, Kwada Bodkin, our Director of Creative Content and Outreach, and Mike Humowitz, our Media Specialist. I don't know what I would do without you each and all.

To my publishers at Wiley, thank you for your continued faith in this book. Especially, I want to thank my editor, Rebecca Browning, who acquired this book originally for Jossey-Bass and, in so doing, expressed her faith in me and my work. Rebecca made it clear to me from the outset that she was going to publish a book about how to manage young people. So, I was honored and delighted that she chose me, my research, and my approach as the best in this field. Rebecca has been a steady and reliable and kind commander in this mission. Thank you.

Genoveva Llosa, the editor of one of my earlier books, It's Okay to Be the Boss, took on the job of getting my too-long original manuscript for the first edition pared down to a manageable size. Who else could I possibly trust with such a mission? Because Genoveva was such a rigorous and thorough editor for my last book, I knew she would trim this book with the care of a surgeon. Thank you, Genoveva.

Special thanks to Shannon Vargo for getting behind the first revised updated edition of this book, not to mention her tremendous support for my other books. Double triple quadruple special thanks to the team at Wiley who got behind this third edition, especially Jeanenne Ray and Michelle Hacker and also Jozette Moses. I hope I've lived up to the confidence you've placed in me.

Meanwhile, Susan Rabiner, my agent (and my wife Debby's agent, too) and our dear friend, is always there behind the scenes of our careers in book publishing. Susan is otherworldly when it comes to understanding books and setting them up for success. Susan is truly a genius when it comes to helping a writer figure out whether and how to turn an idea into a book worth publishing. Genius Susan and her genius husband, the late Al Fortunato, wrote the book on publishing nonfiction, Thinking Like Your Editor.

To my family and friends, I owe my deep and abiding thanks for allowing me to be me and for being who you are. Thanks to my parents, Henry and Norma Tulgan (d. 2016); my parents in-law, Julie and Paul Applegate; my nieces and nephews (from youngest to oldest): Eli, Frances, Erin, Perry, and Elisa; my sister, Ronna, and my brother, Jim; my sister in-law, Tanya, and my brothers in-law, Shan and Tom, and Jim's life-partner Debbie (and their grandsons Emerson and Warren). I love every one of you so very much.

Special thanks to my ever-loving parents for all that hard work of raising me and for being among the very most supportive parents and closest friends for whom I could ever hope. I treasure every single minute we have spent together. What would I be without you?

Thanks to our newest bestest best friend Ben, for being such a good boy.

Also special thanks to Frances, to whom this book is now re-re-dedicated, and who since the age of five-minutes old has been the closest I've ever had to my own child. Fran, I will never be your father, but you will always be my daughter. Frances: You are one of the greatest joys of my life. There is nothing I wouldn't do for you.

Finally, I reserve my most profound thanks always for my wife, Dr. Debby Applegate, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher and author of the blockbuster classic Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age (2021). Debby's books (and articles) are so good, such fine specimens of writing and thinking; she is my beacon of inspiration whenever I'm writing … or thinking. She asks the toughest questions and offers the most interesting answers. She has literally and literarily held my hand throughout the writing of this book and, really, through every move I've made over the past 36 years and counting. I asked Debby to marry me when she was 17. It took me eight years to convince her. And here we are. Debby is my constant adviser, my greatest supporter, my toughest critic, my closest collaborator, the love of my life, my best friend, my smartest friend, my partner in all things, half of my soul, owner of my heart, and the person without whom I would cease to be. Thank you, my love.