Typical morning behavior, right? But a majority of her co-workers at Firehouse, an advertising and branding agency in Far North Dallas, do the same thing - and then they sit and socialize in their company's living room.

''I just like to catch up and then I head to my room - oh, I mean office,'' says the 24-year-old copywriter. ''It's nice having your own room. It's a coming-of-age type of thing. It's a status symbol.''

Generation Y, the younger work force known for wearing flip-flops and listening to iPods at the office, has been transforming the culture of corporate America.

But it's also changing the physical workspace.

Businesses are now providing ''personal'' rooms, more open areas and break lounges with full kitchen amenities.

''From my perspective, what the younger people are bringing is a refreshing look, and we have a willingness to look at it,'' says Stan Smith, principal and national director of next-generation initiatives for Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. ''It's not that we should have already been doing this. . . . The young people are helping.'' Younger workers - Gen Y (those born after 1980) and Gen X (those born 1965-1979) - also want multipurpose rooms and diverse functional spaces.

''We hardly design any project anymore without some sort of central gathering that brings people together,'' says Kim Hogan, a principal at Corgan Associates Inc., a national architecture and interior design firm that is constructing a building in Dallas with some of these concepts.

''Gen X and Gen Y are social. They really want to be part of a working community.''

But wanting to work in an enjoyable team environment isn't new.

In the dot-com heyday, the look of a workspace took a left turn. Unconventional amenities then - pool tables, video arcades, couches - are influencing office space today.

David Morrison, president of Twentysomething Inc., a Philadelphia-based young adult marketing consultancy, doubts offices are on the way back to those days. But he says companies will have to start rethinking their work environments, if they haven't yet.

''Look at young adults today - they are the bottom of the ladder. They are feeling the greatest pain with the least benefits,'' he says. ''And in that sense, a way a company can start to increase employee satisfaction is to put that little cappuccino machine out there.''