Survey: Only 58% of workers at Homeland Security are happy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Department employees mostly are an unhappy lot.

An internal survey of about 141,000 of the department’s 208,000 employees found that only 58 percent were satisfied with their jobs, the same as results from a 2006 survey that measured job satisfaction across the government. The department ranked at the bottom in the 2006 poll, which was conducted by the Office of Personnel Management.

Though 91 percent of the people who work at the department think the work they do is important, only 54 percent would recommend the department as a good place to work. That number is up from the 51 percent reported in 2006.

The department was formed in 2003 out of 22 disparate agencies.

“It’s important to recognize that it takes time to turn around a battleship,” Elaine Duke, the department’s deputy undersecretary for management, wrote on the agency’s Web site Thursday night where the survey results were posted.