At Monday night’s WWD Apparel & Retail Summit, leaders in the retail and luxury industries discussed why in the world Gen Y employees are so antsy in their careers. Our expectations are high and our stay-in-one-position-for-longer-than-a-year rate is low. Many employers and other generations say we expect more than most, but studies also say that we’re also willing to work hard.

Often, its attributed to a short attention span fed by the likes of fast food, social media and even faster examples of what we can be in life (enter Mark Zuckerberg), but in reality its much deeper than that.

“Gen-Y is a group of people who need to be engaged,” said Denise Incandela, chief marketing officer and president of Saks Direct at Saks Inc., New York. “When they are not ready for upward development, we can move them laterally.

Yes, we do need to be engaged, but its more than that, here are a few reasons why:

1. We Want More Career Sooner
Gen Y women (which make up a great deal of the luxury and retail industry) are conditioned to be much bolder than some of the generations before them. We want more career sooner, Burger King told us we could have it our way and somehow we rationalized that we could take that approach to all parts of life, careers included.

2. We Don’t Believe We Have to Settle
This isn’t to say we aren’t settling in some area in life, but in a general sense, we’re prepared to ask for more. So many opportunities are available to us that we sit back and ask ourselves “Why not? Will someone else pay me more? Is there a place I can grow more? Is this job really what I imagined it to be?” When so many young women between the ages of 21 and 29 have great educations and experience but are in early stage careers with no benefits, no promise, long hours and low salaries, why wouldn’t they be on the constant quest for better?

3. We Want More Responsibility
Yes its true, Gen Y must be engaged but they also have to be given more. Even things that are small and mundane can be done faster and more efficient than ever before. Now that they’re saving time, they need more ways to fill it up. Contrary to popular belief, every Gen Y-er isn’t innately an entrepreneur, but they are all fresh with a bundle of ideas and a load of potential, it can be difficult when lack of activity or opportunity in the workplace makes them feel their being held back. This could be true for any generation, it just so happens that Gen Y is a prime example.

4. We Still Like to Show Our Gold Stars
One huge complaint I’ve heard from fellow Gen Y-ers in the work place is an utter lack of appreciation. This is after 12 – 16 hour days, often 6-7 day work weeks and huge accomplishments that added to their company’s bottom line. Its true, this generation may have been given a gold star and a trophy for just about every thing growing up, but that’s a reality we’ll now have to deal with. Reward and appreciation makes people want to do more and perform better, but that’s not new, how long has the “Employee of the Month” concept been around? This generation receives a lot of flack from the media, older generations, “superiors” – and for those that are entrepreneurs, even consumers and clients – for being entitled. That’s not the issue. Its not so much about asking for respect when its undeserved, its about being able to smile and be praised for our accomplishments when they are.

5. We Believe in Rule Breaking
Gen Y isn’t afraid to break the rules, especially when we’ve seen that sometime, the rules just don’t work, at least not for the outcome we want. Time after time we’ve seen examples of men breaking the rules and getting ahead, these days, girls and young women are following suit. An ideal company culture would let Gen Y break the rules and take risks all the time, but that’s a culture that few companies have adopted just yet.

What do you think? Why are we more apt to break the rules than follow them? Why is staying put not good enough?