i once got fired over the "tone" of an internal communication at the major water utility I was employed by. The recipient of the email did not object but did comment to me personally about "toning it down" but they loved me. This guy was a supervisor in California at a local district office and I was in Illinois at a call center as a billing specialist. They had a customer that kept asking for unreasonable adjustments on their water bill. I finally emailed that I made one last adjustment and that was it. My problem was using all caps and bold on a few words...that was the "tone" problem.
The issue escalated because I cc'd a call center supervisor who was dealing with the customer from our end. He had a huge issue and escalated it to my boss, her boss, and his boss.
That evening, I kept getting receipts returned via LotusNotes that my emails were being opened, one after the other. Problem was, they were days, weeks, even months old. Same supervisor was opening them. I walked out of my cubicle to hers. She was in there crying. After 50 emails she had to suspend me. Too many "problem" emails.
I was fired a few days later. I won my unemployment appeal. But I sure hated to lose that job. Despite the politics, which I sucked at, I loved what I did and it paid well (at the time) and had full benefits.
Now I have a job that pays well but no benefits.
Moral of the story..be careful what you email. Other moral of the story...if you are employed...stay employed and keep your head below the radar...until you can find something else.
Snakes (Rich )