North Carolina career state employees should grieve any grievable discipline. 

State employees enjoy significant protections, including that the State has the burden to prove that any disciplinary decision was supported by "just cause". This can be a difficult burden to satisfy, as the courts have repeatedly held that agencies erred in disciplinary decisions that did not properly consider possible lesser alternative disciplines, discipline imposed in similar cases, or the relative seriousness of the alleged justification. 

Of course, agencies and their human resource administrators would prefer that an employee forego the grievance process. It saves them a lot of work! And they don't have to worry about such pesky nuances as whether they properly considered appropriate factors in disciplinary issues, or whether their stated justification was consistent from the pre-disciplinary notice of discipline through to final agency decision. An employee that preserves and asserts his grievance rights can eventually obtain discovery of a lot of helpful information that might show that bosses were out to get them, gave preferential treatment to other employees, or other uncomfortable facts that might negate a disciplinary decision. Administrators have been known to misstate the burden of proof or misleadingly explain that "North Carolina is a right to work state" when trying to convince a disciplined employee that the grievance process is hopeless.

The only way to know for sure whether a grievance is hopeless is by filing a grievance and following through all the way to a hearing at the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings.  

A career state employee (A North Carolina State employee who is in a permanent position with a permanent appointment and has been continuously employed by the State of North Carolina ... in a position subject to the North Carolina Human Resources Act for the immediate preceding months) can grieve the following issues all the way to the Office of Administrative Hearings:

• Dismissal, demotion, or suspension without pay for disciplinary reasons without just cause
• Involuntary non-disciplinary separation due to unavailability
• Denial of reemployment or hiring due to denial of reduction inforce priority as required by law (N.C.G.S. § 126-7.1)
• Denial of promotional opportunity due to failure to give priority consideration for promotion to a Career State employee as required by law (N.C.G.S. § 126-7.1)

It is crucial to initiate a grievance within 15 days of the agency action that is being grieved. 

The state employee grievance resolution process can be intimidating. The agency will often try to convince a disciplined worker that resistance is futile.

Upon receiving a notice of discipline, a North Carolina state employee's first action should be submit the grievance, and their second action should be to contact me for a consultation. 

A written notice of grievance need not be artfully drafted, and can be something along the lines of "I believe that my discipline was not supported by just cause and I want to grieve the decision."