From Time: What Gen Y Really Wants

…along come the 76 million members of Generation Y. For these new 20-something workers, the line between work and home doesn’t really exist. They just want to spend their time in meaningful and useful ways, no matter where they are. They are in high demand… have high expectations for personal growth, even in entry-level jobs.

From USA Today: Generation Y: They’ve arrived at work with a new attitude

They want to work, but they don’t want work to be their life. [...] Unlike the generations that have gone before them, Gen Y has been pampered, nurtured and programmed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they are both high-performance and high-maintenance…

“Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today’s workforce,” says Jordan Kaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long Island University-Brooklyn in New York. “They’ve grown up questioning their parents, and now they’re questioning their employers. They don’t know how to shut up, which is great, but that’s aggravating to the 50-year-old manager who says, ‘Do it and do it now.’ “

On CNN: Generation Y: Too demanding at work?

Not too long ago, the generation gap meant parents didn’t understand why ripped jeans cost twice as much as regular ones or why every other word coming out of their child’s mouth was “like.”

Now the gap means employers don’t understand why twentysomethings straight out of college expect a high salary and lots of vacation time.

Eighty-seven percent of hiring managers and HR professionals say Gen Y exhibits a sense of entitlement that older generations don’t.

Thankfully, Entrepeneur Magazine ran an article de-bunking several of these myths, which was quite a relief to see. Among them:

Myth #1: They’re disloyal.
Bruce Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking and co-author of Managing Generation Y, argues the complete opposite. “They’re very loyal. It’s just not the kind of blind loyalty you get in a kingdom–blind loyalty to the hierarchy.” Gen Yers want to know they’ll be compensated fairly for the work they put in.

Gone are the days of working for a company for 30 to 40 years. In today’s environment, nobody trusts the system to take care of them long term. …millennials are acutely aware that nothing is a “sure thing.”

It’s definitely an article worth reading – there’s a lot more at the full post.

Here’s what I know about us*:
>> We grew up with computers, & aren’t afraid to talk openly online.

>> At some point, we all get burned because of it.

>> We volunteer.

>> We vote.

>> We grew up with video games. They really & truly haven’t made us any more violent.

>> We don’t understand why you won’t recycle, or hate the green movement.

>> We read. Books, magazines, blogs… trust me. We’re reading.

>> We’re really quite upset that a college education means so little these days. We got into a lot of debt to pay for it.

>> No, really: $20,000 or more college loan debt is pretty much the norm.

>> Even those of us who had a fantastic educational experience think the system needs an overhaul.

>> Athough we’re quite happy to live in the US, we get that Cold War policies aren’t viable any more.

>> We have ideas. We’d like you to hear them, even if you don’t use them.

>> We drink Starbucks because it’s delicious. We shop at Target because it’s pretty.

>> We eat a lot of whole & organic food because it’s healthier. Yeah, we know it’s a bit more expensive. We believe it’s worth it. This isn’t a fad.

>> We’d be ecstatic if the rest of you would open your eyes & care about the world at large.

I love this article, from the Christian Science Monitor, written by a fellow millennial:

Commentators often point to studies in which 20-somethings have admitted to – horror of horrors – believing in ourselves and our ability to accomplish great things.

And they insist that our fluency in all things technology means that we’re more concerned with updating our Facebook profiles than working hard.

Forget the uselessness of writing off an entire generation before its members have even had the chance to do anything with their lives; this underestimation has been happening since kids danced the Charleston, talked about flower-power, or listened to hip-hop. Using one label to describe millions of people from all types of socioeconomic and educational backgrounds is the kind of intellectual shorthand these same pundits are all too happy to ascribe to us millennials and say it comes from our warped attention spans.

…millennials haven’t necessarily had it as easy as everyone might think. [...] Studies by Demos and the Center for American Progress have suggested that the combination of declining incomes, growing debt, and high costs of education, home ownership, and healthcare are conspiring to make this generation the first to not surpass the living standards of their parents.

We have a lot of the same dreams as Generation X, the ‘Boomers, & The Greatest Generation. We want to own a home, have a great job, raise a family. But we’d like to do this without harming, & preferably helping, the world around us. We’re not lazy, or indulgent, or have a disturbingly high sense of entitlement. We’re just different, & see the world through different eyes.

& with the rapid changes going on right now, I’d think everyone would be looking for a fresh perspective. There’s a lot of work to do, & this is the generation that will see it through. We’re passionate, obsessive, adaptable. We live to laugh & try to cram as much as possible into everything. Yeah, we use weird abbreviations & demand the best of everything. We’re many things, including your new co-workers.

*Obviously, this isn’t all of us. But it is a lot of us.