Post-Y generation

… there is one school of thought that says Gen Y is all about a strong having work-life balance, a personalised workplace, and a happy, motivated career, with a strong sense that what they are doing is important.
"A common theme throughout was the students' belief that their parents' generation worked too hard and that a work-life balance and the ability to start a family without one's career being affected were important prerequisites in determining the paths they would pursue."
… That same study suggests that Gen Y workers are running the risk of major disappointment, that 30 to 45 year olds suffered mid career depression and that 31-35 year olds were the most negative, topping the poll in every category, including 'feeling undervalued' (59%), being 'unfulfilled' (49%) and being 'de-motivated' (43%).
But the most interesting stuff is about the Post-Y generation, the ones born from 1995. And according to Tamara Erikson on the Harvard Business Review blog, they are significantly different from Gen Y, not to mention Gen X or their boomer grandparents.
For a start, they have come into a world where there are all sorts of problems and no easy solutions. "Most 12 year olds are very aware that the polar ice caps are melting and the march of the penguins is slowing to a halt," Erikson writes. "They know why the family is vacationing in the backyard this year and understand that the high gas prices are related to diminishing global supply of a commodity that has, in many ways, become the ubiquitous lubricant of American society over the past seventy years, since our trek to the suburbs began in the 1940s. Many understand that other resources are limited, as well. Their geography lessons have given them a sense of the vital role water plays in politics and our future. Whatever they or their parents think about the war in Iraq and the Middle East in general, it's likely that they have absorbed the complexity of the situation. I doubt they've heard anyone offering simple, quick solutions regardless of the direction in which one would prefer to head. It would have been almost impossible for them to escape the phrase "housing crisis," even though few, I suspect, understand how such a disaster came to be. Home ownership, an icon of past generations' goals, suddenly looks less worthy, now a risky proposition."
It's important to remember they are coming into a world where the economic conditions are likely to be more constrained. And that will shape their thinking.
(from "Management Line" in "The Age")