I permitted myself a wry smile when news broke yesterday that Generation Y – those born in and after the late 80s – have an inflated sense of their own worth.

Dubbed the “entitled to it all” generation, today’s young workers, apparently believe they deserve jobs with big salaries, status and plenty of leisure time – without having to put in the hours.

According to the study, published in the Journal of Management, the desire to find work with “meaning” had declined, with younger workers more likely to see jobs as a means of funding their lifestyles.

I’m a big fan of my twentysomething colleagues – dubbed the “graduate divas”. Brought up by liberal parents, they’re clever and gorgeous. Young, university-educated, techno-savvy, they know themselves to be in great demand. You won’t catch them weeping in the stationery cupboard. They operate a healthy work-life balance and are far less likely to want to work overtime. And, unlike my inept generation, they have social skills. No wonder employers are terrified. And they represent progress. Our own parents were frightened to praise their children in case we got “too confident”. Little did they know just how big a slap the real world would administer. You can’t praise your children too much.

But you know the compliment is not returned. Graduate divas are furious with us. And I’d just like to say: excuse me talented twentysomethings, we never spent your money! Or took your jobs, or inflated property prices or crashed the banks. Personally I first got a mortgage (the cheapest in London) at 38. Repeat after me: we are not the enemy. In my forties, I still don’t have a job with a contract. I’ve never had shares or a second home.

I totally agree there’s intergenerational unfairness. The new graduates have been living with massive debt since their teens. I hate the fact you can’t get flats or jobs. That you’re still couch surfing in your late 20s. But please be a bit more discriminating with your wrath.

No one is picking up the tab for me. We are talking about a very top tier who bled the country dry and were greedy for an inflated lifestyle. And frankly – if you’re privileged enough to be working for a media organisation aged 25 – it’s probably your mum and dad who are more to blame.

If I have to read one more article by a graduate diva accusing the over-40s “of stealing my golden years”, I might just scream. We’re not all voracious cougars out on the pull for young flesh.

We went through the 1970s recession which meant high unemployment and precious little social mobility. We worked in tedious non-graduate jobs and never even considered such luxuries as gap years. It took me years to catch up. I don’t have any pension to speak of. Like many women of my age, I have had to negotiate a fragmented but rewarding career. So hey ho, I need to keep working all my life.

I don’t want to get into a slanging match with Generation Y. Most are extremely nice. I even fancy some of them. Good on them for not getting suckered in. They see a nation living on tick, so who cares about doing ludicrous overtime or getting sacked? I only wish I’d channelled my inner-diva years ago.

But please spare me one more 23-year-old telling me piteously: “I’m so worried about where my career is going.” What do they think we’ve all been slogging away at for the past 20 years?