Will the current financial crisis make the demanding millennials feel less entitled? That’s the question I am being asked more and more these days as the job market continues to weaken and Americans grow increasingly anxious about the economy and the financial markets.

Certainly, the millennial generation could stand to take their expectations down a few notches and be a bit more accommodating. In my new book, The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace, I write: “If there’s one overriding perception of millennials, it is that they are a generation with great—and sometimes outlandish—expectations. While members of most generations were considered somewhat spoiled in their youth, many millennials feel an unusually strong sense of entitlement. Older adults routinely criticize the high-maintenance rookies for wanting too much too soon. In particular, they resent the impatient millennials for expecting overnight advancement from their entry-level jobs. ‘They want to be CEO tomorrow,’ is a common refrain from frustrated corporate recruiters. Whatever happened to paying your dues, they wonder.”

Of course, it’s far too soon to tell how millennials—born between 1980 and 2001—may react to this crisis, but don’t count on dramatic changes in their expectations. I believe they will likely make only short-term adjustments to try to cope with the weak economy. They are apt to stick with an unsatisfying job longer and do less job hopping simply because there are fewer opportunities. But I believe that long-term they will continue to seek jobs they feel passionate about. They also will still want rapid-fire promotions, steady career development, and frequent feedback and guidance from their bosses.

Most of all, I believe millennials will continue to demand some degree of flexibility in their work life so they can find time for their personal pursuits. While they may have to endure long hours to hang onto their jobs right now, they won’t do so forever. What millennials want most is control over their lives. Face time is an alien concept to this generation. They abhor clocks and fixed schedules. Although millennials need structure and clear directions for their projects and other assignments, they want to be able to perform that work where they like and when they like.

Unlike baby boomers and generation Xers who also have long pushed for greater work-life balance, millennials feel it is their right, not just a need. Millennials intend to become agents of change, pushing flexibility to the top of the workplace agenda. In a 2007 Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey, more than 70% of M.B.A. recruiters said they increasingly find that job candidates are seeking positions offering them benefits for balancing work-life issues. While it was traditionally female baby boomers and Gen Xers who sought flexible work arrangements to help them care for children, there isn’t a very big gender split on the importance of work-life harmony with the millennial generation.

The sagging economy could have other repercussions for millennials:

• I predict that the so-called boomerang effect is likely to intensify, as even more millennials return to the parental nest if they lose a job or simply can’t find one after graduation. While earlier generations left home for good when they moved away to college, many parents say their millennial kids are more than welcome to come back home whenever they choose. It’s a comfy safety net in this turbulent time. Even before times got so tough, millennials were heading back home. In a 2006 Life After College survey by Experience Inc., the career-services firm, nearly 60% of the respondents reported moving back home after college and about one-third remained there for more than a year. Many were motivated by financial reasons.
• Many millennials have the entrepreneurial bug, which could prove harder to satisfy in the current economic environment. Entrepreneurship may in fact be the perfect career path for some millennials who don’t want to end up as “corporate slaves” and are willing to take risks to marry their talents with their passions. By starting their own businesses, they can immediately do something personally meaningful and succeed or fail based on the merits of their endeavors, not the whims of a corporate boss. But they may have to put those plans on hold because of the tight credit situation and more cautious spending by both companies and consumers.
• With fewer corporate recruiters chasing them, millennials may gravitate even more to government and nonprofit jobs. Because they tend to be very civic minded, millennials favor jobs that give them the opportunity to give back to society. That may mean working for a corporate employer with a reputation for social and environmental responsibility, joining a nonprofit, or going into government service. Already such government agencies and nonprofits as the U.S. State Department, the Peace Corps, NASA, Teach for America, the CIA, and the FBI are among the top 20 employers on college graduates’ wish lists, according to a study by the research firm Universum.

Whatever impact the economic turmoil has on the millennial generation, these young people are likely to emerge from the crisis a bit more resilient and flexible. That, of course, would be a positive outcome. I also believe that they will be no less sure of what they want in a career and an employer and no less intent on realizing their dreams. They have become accustomed to achieving what they set out to do, and even an economic jolt as severe as this one won’t discourage them from fulfilling their great expectations.