Generation Y

We care less about salaries and more about a "work-life balance", we don't live to work but work to live, we want nice bosses, positive reinforcement, to make a difference and not be treated as subordinates. In other words we want a complete restructuring of the traditional model of the workplace, we want to travel and volunteer, we want to be treated with respect and even coddled a little bit, and we don't want a traditional 40 hour work week. But what we want goes a lot deeper than that, I believe. We want to experience everything, and see the world, we want non-profits to be profitable enough to work for so we can support the materialism our hard working Baby Boomer parents doused us in, we want a two hour lunch to go to yoga and a flexible schedule so we can go skiing. In fact, we work well with deadlines but not as well with direct oversight. But the fact of the matter is, for many of us work feels like an obligation that will pass with time allowing us to go on and accomplish all of the saving the world humanitarian goodness we were always told we could do if we wanted to. So while I sit here at my desk, staring at electronics in varying shades of gray, manila folders piled around me like a fortress, I wonder how I will see the world, support a family someday, and not sell my soul to the 9-5 durdgery that already has me within its grasp.