Generational influences on workforce patterns is the new ‘buzz topic’ across the health professions with blanket assumptions about how persons’ approach their work preferences and career choices based on ‘when’ they were born. We should avoid a tendency toward seeing ‘Generation Y’ as the basis for our predicted workforce anomalies. Every generation brings with it a new set of values and ideals that permeate into their preferences for living, learning and working – also shaped by their social and physical environment.