One day in late December 2013, I took the day off to finish some Christmas things around the house, which meant I was able to sit back and enjoy the Justine Sacco fiasco. I admit, I was checking Twitter every few minutes to see if she had landed yet, and kept track of different news feeds that I figured would have the first reports when she landed.

Last week there was an article in the New York Times Magazine addressing the issue of shaming on the internet, and Sacco’s case was the primary case under discussion. Sacco, for those who have forgotten who who (lucky them) never heard of any of this, was the head of corporate communications at internet firm IAC, and as she boarded an 11-hour flight she tweeted something that struck an awful lot of people as being extremely inappropriate. Given that her job is in PR and she seemed to have no clue that what she was doing could make her company look bad, it sort of called into question just how good she really was in that line of work.

I think IAC did the right thing by putting out a message while she was still out of touch, a message that essentially said “we acknowledge there’s a problem, just wait and let us find out what actually happened.” In the end, of course, they found out that what actually happened was that she sent the tweet and probably had no idea why it might not be a good idea, and so she and her employer “parted ways.”

Why wasn’t it a good idea? Don’t lots of people post inappropriate messages and pics on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc? Well, of course they do. Typically, they assume that’s totally ok. Therein lies the problem that you face.

We have lots of people in the workforce now (and many more in the pipeline behind them) who have become accustomed to the benefits of emerging technologies without recognizing the possible consequences or the boundaries for their use. For instance, many people feel that, because you can be in touch 24/7, you must be in touch 24/7, and so a text that’s not answered within 60 seconds is a sign of either a broken friendship or that the person on the other end is being held hostage.

Similarly, many people think that because they can immediately post every thought that comes to mind, they must do so. That is not true, of course, and since posting something is a personal choice rather than a requirement, there is the possibility of personal consequences too. Claims of “that’s private” or “that’s personal” lose their meaning when you voluntarily, and unnecessarily, decide to send out a message with the express purpose of people reading it and having a reaction to it. When the reaction is not what you wanted, and ends up getting you fired, well, too bad. That’s the chance you take.

Justine’s case was an easy one, in my opinion. She identified her company and her role in her Twitter profile, so even if this is her personal account, she’s made it linked to her employer. Of course, the fact that she’s a communications director was icing on the cake, as her actions suggested she really doesn’t understand modern communication very well. (I have to wonder if IAC’s response was based on a crisis communication plan Justine was responsible for creating…oh, the irony.) If there was no public connection between the individual and your workplace, then the question of what you would do becomes tougher, but the bottom line is that if it affects your business, you have a role to play in dealing with it.

Companies try to have social media policies, but often they are either too vague to have much effect or so specific that they have too many rules and regulations to really understand. The best policy is common sense, but what is common to one person or group might not be common to others. Sit down with your employees and just make it clear that if they make the company look bad, there may be consequences, and then have an open and frank discussion about what is acceptable or not, and why. When you have this conversation, leave your mind open to the option that maybe your views about what is acceptable might need to change, too. Make this a real learning conversation, not just a top-down rule.

You would be amazed how many problems can be avoided by simply talking. Just make sure you do it before that bad tweet happens, rather than after.