They might wear flip flops to the office and address colleagues as "dude," but the youngest generation of workers brings fresh creativity and openness to the workplace.

The challenge of managing Generation Y, or the Millennials – born between 1980 and 1999 – has spawned a small industry of expertise and literature, including Keeping the Millennials, new this month, and Y in the Workplace, due out in July.

Both books argue that the newest generation is making waves in the office that must be addressed and tended. Some 40 million Millennials work in corporate America, a figure expected to hit 58 million by 2014.

Tech-savvy and fast-working, Millennials are also impatient and indulged, the product of hovering parents and educations that never let them fail, the books say.

And they communicate differently from the rest of us – tweeting and texting and writing "CYL" for "see you later".

Y in the Workplace cites an impasse between a Generation Y worker, working at home, and her older boss. "I'm only texting today, not talking on the phone," she wrote. He replied: "Well, I'm only talking on the phone."

Older managers tend to generalise that all younger workers are alike, says Joanne Sujansky, co-author with Jan Ferri-Reed of Keeping the Millennials.

"The mistake we make is we don't listen, and we have them stereotyped to be whiners, babies, brats," she says, adding: "They may expect more praise, feedback and flexibility than their older colleagues, but those needs aren't all bad.

"If we try to meet some of their needs, we make a workplace that is attractive to other generations also," she says.

The recession is hitting Millennials – a protected generation – particularly hard, says Nicole Lipkin, who coauthored Y in the Workplace with April Perrymore as a guide for managing the "me first" generation.

Taught to take their time deciding what to do in life and to job-hop if things get tough, they don't have coping skills for hard economic times, she says. "Life isn't like they thought it was going to be," she says.

But they have also been taught to speak their minds and say what they want, she adds. "Obviously it's going to annoy some people here and there, but I think that's a really good quality," she says.

Once the economy improves, Millennials are likely to be the first to look for new jobs, says Sujansky, whose book focuses on the high costs of losing them.

While Millennials have many good qualities, they can also be aggressive and arrogant and need to learn some decorum, says Sujansky.

"The Millennial group is an eye-rolling, sighing group," she says. "If they could learn to make that not quite so obvious and find some patience, that would be helpful."

Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the daily Emirates Business 24|7 newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.