Here We Go Again

My career in publishing began at a national consumer magazine for executive women, when the MBA rode high in corporate America. I remember articles we published about the tension between the generation of women who originally broke the glass ceiling to the executive suite and its generation of successors. The younger group was accused of taking its managerial (and earning) potential for granted to the chagrin of those who fought and bled to get there.

What goes around comes around. Now, the tension arises between Gen Y (the "entitled millennial generation") and those who came before–the boomers ironically in the younger age range above and their children (for more, see "You've Got a Friend"). Generational and workplace experts repeatedly have said Gen Y members "expect" cutting-edge technology, and if they don't get it, they'll move on. A similar worried theme ran through industry conferences I've attended in recent years.