Generation "Why Should I?"

Before recent grads get bent out of shape about yesterday's AP article that re-christened them the "entitlement generation," they might consider taking the new moniker stoically. After all, Baby Boomers and Generation Xers have previously been described as feeling overly "entitled."

According to Martha Irvine's article, the new generation has "shockingly high expectations for salary, job flexibility, and duties but little willingness to take on grunt work or remain loyal to a company." Having lived through an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity, the 'entitleds' have "become accustomed to instant gratification," according to a pediatrics professor. And a consultant grumbles, "It seems they want and expect everything that the 20- and 30-year veteran has the first week they're there."

While the writer acknowledges that younger generations are forever prodigal in the eyes of their elders -- the boomers were hippies, the Xers were slackers -- she marshals a laundry list of employers and experts, all of whom seem to agree that the generation raised on PCs and PlayStations is the least willing to pay its dues. Are you having these kinds of problems with your younger employees? And, given the developments of the last five years -- the Internet bust, 9/11, the war in Iraq -- do you think a change may be on the horizon?

Or perhaps boomers are just getting cranky in their old age...

Senior contributing writer Max Chafkin has profiled companies such as Yelp, Zappos, Twitter, Threadless, and Tesla for the magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. @chafkin