A recent Harris International poll found 92 percent of Gen Yers are looking for work that includes a "flexible work schedule" (92 percent), "requires creativity" (96 percent) and "allows me to have an impact on the world" (97 percent). And when polling firm Roper Starch Worldwide surveyed differing workplace attitudes among generations, 90 percent of Gen Yers said they wanted co-workers "who make work fun".

"The reason you see so many people now speaking about the green dollar and carbon offsets and all of this sort of stuff is because that's driven from Gen Yers and Gen Xers going: 'That's great but what are the values? How are we going to achieve that? Do we achieve that at all cost?' They want values and an ethical dimension because they have had so much and they have an absolute mistrust of large organizations," Hartnett says.

"Generation Y especially want to know about your values, want to have a lot more freedom. The key industries I think that are under threat here are the organizations that are very much dominated by partnerships, by individuals and now Baby Boomers who worked long and hard, have done the hard yards, who may have gone through two divorces to get where they are, who have got the big office suite and who are very much dependent upon the young partners coming through.

"What we've seen, starting with Generation X, is people saying: 'You know, I don't think I want this. I'm actually really keen to spend more time with my family. I'm not sure I want to go through a divorce, I'm not sure I want to miss my kids and I'm seeing how your kids have turned out.' And part of the response from the Baby Boomers is: 'Well, you expect to have a job - how dare you.'"

Hartnett sees another distinct difference between the attitudes of younger and older generations: for many young people money just isn't the motivator it once was. Generation Xers and Yers want more, demanding to know what their employer is willing to do to advance their skills and coach them through their career.

Such broad attitudinal shifts are starting to complicate succession planning hugely, Hartnett says, and leading to anger and resentment from Baby Boomers resentful of both the extra flexibility and greater opportunities for training and coaching their juniors enjoy.

And our anonymous CIO says he sees another significant difference between these younger workers and his peers: the youngsters are far less inclined to make sharp distinctions between work and not-work. "There is no delineation. I guess the thing that occasionally makes me feel old is that I tend to delineate between "I'm working" and "Now I've stopped working" and they don't see that at all; it's an absolute continuum through their behaviour patterns," the CIO says.