the wrong opinion?

This comes from a friend of mine who works for a county office in the Midwest...

For those of you who I haven't spoken to about my recent work news, thought I would give you a brief synopsis.

I found out on Monday that I am receiving a five-day unpaid suspension effective next week. I was in complete shock that day, and I am still in a minor haze. The reason I was given was that I violated our computer use policy. They did not any point state that I had violated by the amount of time I had spent on the internet etc. My violation was based upon the content of my e-mails...which they had been looking through for the past year. Allegedly, this was based on an outsider getting an 'unwanted' e-mail and alerting the county. When I looked at the e-mail 'evidence' they gave me later, most of the e-mail was related to bush opinions, where I had sent a link to the michael moore website, etc.

When I asked about the harshness of the punishment I was told that the presiding judge recommended termination. I was told in not so many words that I was lucky to have my job. I have an exemplary work record, have recived all 'exceeds' on my job evaluations, and I do not have ANY infractions in my personnel file. I was also never given a verbal warning.

Off the record, when I asked, the supervisor agreed with me that if my e-mails were of a different 'perspective' (i.e. Republican) that I would probably not have been reprimanded.