Feeling Grumpy About Your Job?

Who do you think likes his or her job better, you or your boss? A few recent surveys hint that IT worker-bees are happier with their jobs than the queen-bee is with hers. But is the company king-pin the unhappiest of all?If you break an IT organization into three parts-staff, the CIO, and the CIO's boss (who is likely to be the COO, CFO or maybe the CEO,) it's the staffers who seem like the happiest bunch right now, if you believe a recent survey by Intermedia, an e-mail hosting company.

It found that IT staffers are three times more likely to "feel appreciated" at work, at least when compared to other corporate workers. Eleven percent of IT workers (compared with only 3% of corporate staff) feel appreciated.

But doesn't that really mean that 89% of IT staffers don't feel appreciated? Maybe they're not that happy after all.

Management doesn't seem much jollier these days, especially those at the top. A survey of 151 C-level executives released this week by online career networking site ExecuNet revealed that 76% are not satisfied or are somewhat dissatisfied with their current jobs. Of those unhappy execs, 75% say they are searching for or preparing to look for a new job.

The 151 C-level executives who participated in this ExecuNet survey included a few CIOs, but also CEOs, CFOs, COOs and others who are often the CIO's boss. The average annual salary of the surveyed executives was nearly $200,000, so apparently money isn't everything, as they say.

So what about CIOs and other top IT executives-where do they register on the job-happiness meter?

Last time ExecuNet checked a few months ago, IT executives were the least satisfied with their jobs, compared to other executives. Only one-in-four IT executives said they were happy with their jobs, compared with nearly 70% of CFOs and HR execs, who were the happiest with their current gigs.

So, what's bugging you about your job these days? And if you're the boss, do you think your underlings feel appreciated by you?