ComputerWorld is saying that “IT job statisfaction plummets to all time low” in an article by Patrick Thibodeau.

Hagan said there is a lot of pent-up dissatisfaction in the IT workplace, as well as a backlog of people who normally would have moved to a different job in a stable economy. The recession has resulted in "unnaturally low attrition levels," he said.

I’ve just handed in my two weeks notice.

No, that’s not a hypothetical or hyperbole; I really did. January 22, 2010, will be my last day at CA|NetQoS.

Thing is, I’m not dissatisfied with my job here. I’m actually quite satisfied with it. When you talk about carrot and stick motivations – there’s no stick.

I’m taking another job because that job allows me to do something I’ve wanted to do my entire adult live – live and work in another country. In this case, specifically, I’ll be working for a startup called TemplateDigital.com, and living in Tauranga, New Zealand. CA|NetQoS always required (with good reason) that I remain here, and telecommuting wasn’t an option.

Even so, over the past three years, what I’ve been able to do here has helped me – I’ve been very happy here, and I think that the main factors in why I’ve been happy comes down to two things: the freedom to try new ideas, and a culture that rewards learning new skills. Because of this, I’ve been doing more work with video production and editing. I think my writing’s improved as well.

It is these improved skills and this risk taking, in fact, that allowed me to land the new job; but also kept me happy at this one.

Over on Slashdot, where they’re discussing the article, a prevailing thought has been that a few people are happier as contractors than they are as full time IT professionals. There are a variety of reasons, but one of them is the freedom of risk-taking and the ability to drive one’s own learning.

Anyway, I have to start packing, so the rest of this article will be written by the Marke-Tron 3000™ blog-posting robot, who we’ll have to rely on until we can line up a replacement.

GREETINGS HUMANS. THE KEY CAUSE OF JOB DISSATISFACTION IS NOT OWNING ENOUGH CA|NETQOS PRODUCTS. ORDER CA|NETQOS PRODUCTS. CA|NETQOS PRODUCTS WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY. CA|NETQOS PRODUCTS WILL MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE TO DESIREABLE HUMAN MATES. CA|NETQOS PRODUCTS ARE 39% MORE EFFECTIVE THAN {competitor’s product here}. CA|NETQOS PRODUCTS ARE BETTER THAN HUGGING A PUPPY. EVERYONE ELSE IS USING CA|NETQOS PRODUCTS AND IF YOU DO NOT, YOU RISK BEING OSTRACISED BY YOUR PEER GROUP. CONSUME. CONSUME. CONSUME.