[Lori Dye is a student in my Lifespan Psychology course at OSU-Mansfield. Consider this an update from the front lines of young adulthood - jlg]

In July, 2007, Time's Penelope Trunk published an article discussing the work ethic of those of us in Generation Y. The article struck me as true the life, particularly when it comes to Generation Y's motivations to work for a company. Many of the people from my generation refuse to settle; they are selective about where they work because they either want to make the best possible decision for themselves and their future, or (very surprisingly) they are watching the moves that their friends are making, possibly in order to trail along with them into a job.

Trunk writes, "The first challenge for the companies that want to hire the best young workers is getting them in the door. They are in high demand--the baby boomers are retiring, and many Gen X workers are opting out of long hours--and they have high expectations for personal growth, even in entry-level jobs." This rings to be the truest statement, to me, in this article, because I see it happening, even in the retail company I work for. In my job, I supervise a member from virtually each of these generations, and the Baby Boomers, who are inching closer to retirement each day, are not concerned with the amount of hours they have, mostly because they are guaranteed full time status because they have been with the company so long. Members of generation X are being hammered by the economy's hardship, and they are going to great lengths to take in as many hours as they possibly can to provide for their family; and while all of this is taking place, my generation, generation Y, is treading water, watching with a careful and mindful eye for an opportunity to advance either within the company or into the degree field they have spent the last 4-6 years working so hard to get into.