The Air Force is the best place to be if you’re a fed who likes information technology. The Interior Department, judged by feds to be not so hot, is the least favorite spot. Those are the results of Federal Computer Week’s second annual survey of the best — and worst — IT agencies for job satisfaction.

When FCW tallied the responses, the Air Force, the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department scored highest on employee satisfaction. Interior, the Transportation Department, the State Department and the U.S Agency for International Development were at the bottom of the rankings.

DOT’s position is somewhat surprising because it had the highest ranking in 2005. The turnabout does not necessarily mean that DOT management fumbled this year. The drop could be because of the number of employees who responded or a few responses that skewed the satisfaction level.

But the factors that influence respondents’ satisfaction are clear. Sentiments such as a “good relationship with management,” “flexible work arrangements” and a “strong belief in management’s vision of the agency’s mission” contributed most to employee satisfaction. Those factors remained relatively stable from 2005 to 2006.

The survey also found clear causes of unhappiness. At least six survey respondents complained about cronyism, favoritism or an old-boy network. A few others cited the incompetence of political appointees. Others griped about lack of funding for IT projects. Some complained about having little opportunity for personal development because agencies are outsourcing more IT work.

IT employees should look for those best and worst practices when they consider changing jobs. The survey findings also indicate how managers can better recruit and retain a capable IT workforce.

FCW surveyed 60,000 government IT employees in its subscriber database. Respondents were anonymous unless they indicated that they were willing to be contacted. Some people agreed to talk about their responses but asked not to be identified so they could speak more freely. Participants received a unique personal identification number to use when they filled out the Web-based questionnaire. The response rate was 2 percent, which is typical of Web-based surveys. This year, 1,183 federal employees completed the survey compared with 602 last year.