“What about Gen X?  Why does everyone forget about us?  How come its all about gen y and boomers? We matter too!”    A gen x’er asked while we were out and about in Chicago after my generational panel last weekend at #HREvolution.

“Because you aren’t loud enough” was my response.

The truth of the matter is that people sell and talk about things that other people listen to and are willing to pay for.  Advertisers pay more for certain shows because people watch them.  Certain colleges charge more than others because they have created a demand and people will pay for it.  You look at the agenda before you register for a conference – why?  because you want to see if you have an interest in what is going on.

Lets face it Gen Y is loud.  We tweet, blog, write, speak a lot.  We have a lot of names, faces, websites and everything else to keep us in the mix.  A lot of what we do isn’t self serving – its about helping other Gen Y’er move forward in the world.   Its about sticking up for ourselves in the “gen y sucks” world.  Its about a group of people that have always been social and public and just using their technology to enhance those relationships.

The truth is that Gen Y wouldn’t be that big of a deal and we wouldn’t talk about it so much if the boomers wouldn’t have started talking about them and then developing experts (who weren’t even gen y) to go out and talk to companies about this “crazy” new group of youngin’s coming.  So, quite honestly we wouldn’t be the way we were if it weren’t for the boomers.

So, to wrap it up – yes we talk about Gen Y alot – Its all the boomers fault – and oh, shoot – I totally forgot to talk about Gen X again.

I’ve been writing, blogging and speaking on Gen Y issues since 2006 when ERE gave me a blog called Gen Y’d (See my 1st post). As one of the “old” Gen Y’ers – I have watched the evolution of “us” in the workplace from the eager recent college grads entering the workforce as our nation was reeling from it first major terrorist attack, the mini-boom of “the talent war” and the current state of record breaking unemployment. I have seen the reality of the “why” we are distrusting of corporate America, less loyal than the boomers to a corporate setting and the reason so many of us strive to be entrepreneurs.

To a degree – the debate shouldn’t even really exist – we are a lot like our counterparts were when they were in their 20′s – we want the same types of thing of out life, have the same goals and dream the same dreams they did.

The difference lies in Expectations.

Our generation has been raised in a “me” culture, a world full of immediate gratification, instant access and always being told we can do (and be) anything. We’ve had computers in our homes since elementary school, cell phones & internet access since early in our high school years and only know about punch cards because of what Gen X’ers tell us.

Our reality and immediate need for gratification has shaped the way we do business, interact with our friends and live our lives.  It has built amazing social networks, changed the history of news and impacted the way companies market, interact and work.  Gen Y’s expectations are changing our culture (or are a subset of the culture we live in one can argue).

We want it all, and we want it now.  And we see nothing wrong with that.

The vision that we all had of “having it all” when we grew up was built out of the defining moments we watched on television, read about on the internet and heard about via friends we may never meet.  We want to have what our parents have (or more) by the time we hit 30 – not 50.

Prior generations would wait their turn.  Be patient.  Accepted that life doesn’t move as fast as we want.  In the workplace they accepted (and understood) the idea of promotion and compensation based on tenure not performance.  That you have to “earn” the right to have an opinion.

Our generation wants to learn – everything – now.  We want to prove ourselves and be promoted and compensated based on our success and value – not how long we sat in our cube in a week.  We want to show you a different way to look at things.

We want you to understand that our expectations don’t take any value out of what you have done in the workforce.  We don’t want you to look down or discourage us.  We want to learn from you and evolve (Rapidly).  We don’t think we are better, faster, stronger, smarter than the generations before us.  We don’t think we are “entitled” to it.  We just aren’t afraid of expectations.

We want YOU to have expectations of US to do something AMAZING!

On Wednesday -  I have an amazing guest post on the topic by Ben McCall of RethinkHR – he’ll talk about why the debate is getting old – lets work together and move on!  (I AGREE!) Sidenote: He is amazingly smart and ready for a new challenge in HR – you should check out his blog and HIRE him!

I love generational issues – but everytime I start to think, we really are similiar I quickly realize I am wrong.  In fact, the concensus this weekend from Gen Y’ers I spoke with is that other than their own kids, 2/3 of boomers hate Gen Y in the workplace.

According to a survey released this weekend, only 48% of all Gen Y’er that were of school age were going to be getting (or already had) a job for the summer.  That means for more than HALF of the kids – they are taking it easy and hanging out by the pool for the summer while their parents give them cash.