now expect opportunity, responsibility, respect-and fun.

Youth is a time for fun. In one American playground inFlorida, there are basketball courts and volleyball nets. Inside, there are bright colours, Nerf guns and a games room with pingpong. This is not a school, but the offices of CapitalOne, one ofAmericaslargest credit-card firms. The firm gives each department a monthly fun budget. The same sort of thing can be found across corporateAmericathese days. The kids have taken over. It is technology that drives business today, and dot.com culture is everywhere. The young are now the rising power in the workplace. Take Microsoft, a business with 40,000 mostly young employees: the dress code is anything goes as long as you´re clean. People wear shorts and have blue hair – sometimes even in management. The typical workplace scene features mid-afternoon hockey, video games and techno music on headphones. Companies want to attract and keep a younger workforce because of its technical skills and enthusiasm for change. So youth culture is becoming part of office culture. This may be no bad thing . Along with the company fun budget come things that matter more deeply to young people: opportunity, responsibility, respect. In the past, it was the middle-aged who ruled. At work, grey hair, years of loyal service and seniority counted most. Now things are changing. Older workers will not disappear, but they will have to share power with the young. In the old days companies grew slowly; with success came conservative corporate values. Now the world´s largest firms can crash at any moment. The pace of change is increasing. And change favours the young: they learn and relearn faster and will risk more to try new things. Many companies no longer have seniority-based hierarchies. People can get to the top faster. They don´t have to spend years showing respect for their superiors. It is more important that they are able to understand e-business and have the courage to ask why? Loyalty to the company is less important than talent. Employees stay only when there are challenges and rewards. Changing jobs frequently is now a sign of ambition and initiative. All this is a good thing. Young people are at their most creative stage in life. Now they have more opportunity to put their ideas and energy into practice.