WeChat friend circle. Photo: VCG

An official in Southwest China's Sichuan Province was reportedly punished for writing a post on WeChat while at work, an action that is regarded as a violation of work discipline.

The official surnamed Ji, at Mabian County People's Congress in Leshan City, wrote a non-work-related post on his WeChat Moments - a social platform similar to Facebook - during working hours on June 29, which later received comments or likes within four hours from seven other public officers, media outlet cqcb.com reported on Friday.

Ji, along with the seven officials, all received written or verbal admonishments from a local discipline authority as a punishment for their "bad work attitude and weak sense of discipline", read a notification released by the authority.

Despite its good intention, many Chinese netizens thought the punishment was excessive.

"If doing things unrelated to work during working hours is prohibited, then it's fair enough to say that asking employees to continue working after their work hours should be also banned," posted a Weibo user.

"The lesson of the incident is that we must hide hour WeChat posts from our bosses," another user joked.