Because I Can't Say These Things Out Loud:
Your raise this year is: you still got a job, we didn't give anyone pay cuts, you still got full health benefits that you don't pay anything for*, you still get 36 days off a year plus sick days, and we still give you the best hardware on the market.
You want to be praised publicly? Do something that's worth praising publicly. Note: Doing your job correctly is not worth praising publicly. I'll give you all the positive feedback you want, in private, for doing your job right. For public praise, you gotta go further.
Stop asking for things. Work harder. You get good things when you earn them. Earning good things isn't easy. That's why we call it "earning." If you didn't sweat to get it, you probably haven't earned it yet. If we gave good things to everyone who asked, we'd have already run out of good things by the time you came and asked.
I normally like to think that I "get," and work well with, the Gen Y folks. I'm borderline Gen Y myself by some estimates, so the need for participation, collaboration and acknowledgment isn't alien to me.
But, since coming into serious corporate management, for the first time I'm seeing a gap between my own understanding and their own expectations. Understanding aside, I can't fathom the awesome sense of entitlement that younger folks seem to bring on board.
This is a struggle for me. They've earned something, but not nearly so much as they think they've earned. I'm not sure what to do with that.
* (Technically, they pay a dollar a year, since for tax reasons it needs to be a voluntary program that they employees pay for. But whatevs.)