Every generation leaves a legacy. Having heard from the Baby Boomers and Generation X we turn our attention to Generation Y. What makes us unique?

A couple of generations back (that of the ‘Baby-Boomers’) people grew up in a world where careers were for life. It was “Hi, I’m Pete and I am a teacher.” Now its “Hi, I am Pete and I am doing Teachfirst, before heading off to JP Morgan for a few years in M&A, after which I hope to set up my own financial consultancy.”

The difference between previous generations and the so-called Generation Y (those of us lucky enough to be born after 1980) is not just that they intend to change jobs several times; new recruits today demand more from their employer than ever before.

They don’t just want to know about job security, but also what kind of social responsibility policy a company has. Instead of asking, “How much overtime will I be expected to work?” the question is now, “How will the firm make sure I maintain a healthy work/life balance?” The pressure is on employers to provide adequate answers to these questions. Its not just the candidate that is under scrutiny, it’s the employer as well.

The demanding attitude has turned ‘Generation Y’ into a derogative term. Older employees tend to see their younger counterparts as arrogant and disloyal.

One article about Generation Y in the Observer in May talked about a case in which the generation gap was all too painfully obvious: a recently recruited 24 year old employee of a large insurance firm disagreed with a major decision made by the firm’s chief executive. The new hire emailed the chief executive directly, outlining his point of view. The response from the chief executive simply read, 'I have been running this company for 10 years; I think I know what I am doing.' Undeterred, the employee responded that he was not the only one who felt that way and managed to convince his boss that he hadn’t meant to be rude.

Loyality and respect for authority are traditionally characterised by not answering back, especially to the chief executive, and so its easy to see why the 24-year-old can be seen to lack these qualities.

However, although the new recruit may not have thought through how to pitch his response correctly, at least he made one. Older employees who shared his ideas did not officially respond at all, confining their opinions to nothing more than water-cooler conversation. In this case, it is them who should be accused of disloyalty. If they thought that the decision was not made in the firm’s best interest, then, by not voicing this opinion, they are not acting in the firm’s best interests themselves.

The wider lesson from this kind of case is that the advent of Generation Y does not represent a dilution in work ethic and values. They just apply the same principles in a different way; loyalty is not manifested as deference but as demanding justification for any decision made by an employer. Similarly, they work hard. But instead of showing this by putting in face-time at their desk, they will work till the job is done. And if its done early, they are quite happy to leave before their boss.

So, if we all share similar ethics and values, then how come there has been such an abrupt change in how they are played out in the workplace?

The changing demographic, both in the UK and elsewhere, has a lot to do with it. The retiring Baby-Boomers greatly outnumber the new graduates entering the workforce. So Generation Y can afford to be pickier about what job they go into. This has given them the bargaining power to demand more from their potential employers. And the employers don’t have much choice but to comply.

Generation Y have not (up to now) experienced severe recession or economic uncertainty: another reason for the change in attitude. That the Teachfirst-JP Morgan-financial consultant kind of multiple career plan has become commonplace indicates a general confidence in finding new employment whenever. This confidence was not widespread in previous generations. They remember when unemployment was above 3 million in 1982, and the accompanying TV pictures of queues outside jobcentres. Without these concerns, Generation Y are less worried about long term job security, and more worried about having flexible contracts that allow them to resign without much hassle.

The final factor effecting this change in attitude is the onset of individual as opposed to company brands. Increasingly, our contact with the world is via mediums that allow us to choose exactly what bits of our lives we want to be seen: facebook, youtube... . We are cultivating mini brands or personas by detagging photos or putting up up video blogs.

Once people start to create their own brands like this, there is far less need to associate with the brand of their employer; if you worked for the BBC ten years ago, then you might have bought into that brand – part of being Jane is working at the BBC. And this creates a kind of loyalty to the place you work. Nowadays, Jane might also blog about the pigeons in London Bridge, or post homemade versions of the videos to her favourite songs: those things are part of her personal brand. The affiliation to the BBC brand is lost, and with it that type of loyalty. For many of Generation Y, personal branding has already usurped company branding.

None of these changes relate to a lazier or less loyal workforce, just one that is a product of its particular surrounding – as every generation before it has been too. Most importantly, these surroundings are still changing. With the full repercussions of the credit crunch still playing out and the word ‘recession’ being thrown about ever more frequently, Generation Y’s attitude to work is likely to undergo even more changes in the coming years. Indeed one day they will be the grumpy older employees remembering the good old days: when working from home was frowned upon rather than being seen as good for the environment, and when there was a thirty day standard rather than a optimal-efficiency model calculating their amount of holiday each year. ‘Why are we different?’ Generation Y might ask. Because Generation Z haven’t graduated beyond baby yoga, that’s why. And when they do, God help us.