I think companies need to be limited in how much they can do on this front. Obviously if the employee is giving away trade secrets or saying how much a certain co-worker sucks, there’s cause for serious alarm and action. 

Still, companies have to be realistic. You can’t “ban” Facebook or other social media in actuality because people are going to go onto these sites anyway. Set a Social Media Policy in motion that spells out guidelines, then, rather than restrict, think about how you can mobilize your employees to be a part of your brand’s voice online regularly.

If you’re asking if a company shouldn’t hire someone because of a totally unrelated event to their workplace, the answer is that companies should be intelligent and remember we all do and say things we regret – some of them even online. Yet those occasional mistakes should not come back to overshadow our true qualifications for a job. Weigh things in the big picture of what that person can contribute.