Boloco CEO John Pepper learned an important lesson this week: watch what you say, especially on Twitter. On December 6, Boloco employee Marielys C., tweeted the following:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/AllHailMaryJane/status/144243147692720129″]

Pepper found the tweet and promptly replied:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/bolocoCEO/status/144267324214616064″]

Ouch.

As expected, Pepper was immediately berated with criticism from followers for firing the employee without speaking to her first. A social media maven, Pepper has done an excellent job managing the fallout via Twitter, taking full responsibility for his tweet, apologizing publicly to followers and admitting he was wrong for acting in haste on a public forum. He also said that he sent a private apology to the employee. Check out some of his recent tweets below.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/bolocoCEO/status/144498842400866304″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/bolocoCEO/status/144450910775554048″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/bolocoCEO/status/144448963859320833″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/bolocoCEO/status/144447677269164032″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/bolocoCEO/status/144442444530978816″]

“She has not been fired,” Pepper reiterated to the Boston Herald. “She won’t even be reprimanded for having something negative to say about Boloco.”

Pepper further explained his reaction to seeing Marielys C.’s tweet to the Boston Herald : “When I was alerted to the tweet, I did a quick check on other tweets … and found another couple about Boloco from a month ago. And what initially went through my mind was a lot harsher than, ‘Sorry. Not anymore.’ I’m human like anyone else.”

While Pepper should have been more level-headed in responding to Marielys C.’s tweet, I understand where he’s coming from. In this day and age, unless you have airtight security on your social networks, you need to watch what you say about your employers, friends, family members and even your enemies.  But not even Zuckerberg, the king of social media himself, can keep his privacy settings straight. So lesson learned? If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

How do you think Pepper handled his employee’s tweet? What would you have done?