“I would not hire them as I am not in the business of pissing off employees or customers.”
I would not retain employees who would become disgruntled at other employees simply because of something they did in the past entirely unrelated to their job. That is most non-professional attitude that will invariably lead to conflict on a wide host of issues leading a hostile and dysfunctional workplace.
After all if your going to get all bent out of shape over something a coworker said or did 10 years ago your clearly don’t have the present of mind to focus on your job. I don’t even want to think about what you might do should a customer display similarly disagreeable thoughts & tendencies. Employees should rightfully be expected to retain a professional attitude at work, and that means working with people you may disagree with.
As for customers they have no business knowing the personal identities and histories of any employee. They need only know that they passed a background check and are deemed safe. If necessary I may ask an employee to go by a different name.
I agree with you. Such a hyper-sensitive employee would just find something else to be upset about, eventually. Best to wait a while, and use the next goof that the employee makes as an excuse to fire him or her.
If I overheard an employee expressing glee about the punishment of the frat boys, I would put that employee on a list of people who are potential trouble, and let them go at first opportunity.
And when said employee drops the a N Word in front of customers or finds himself on an internet video saying he wants to hang people from trees, are you going to stand by the employee?