A little while ago, we wrote about how to have a Facebook page without getting fired. It seems that one Russian air hostess really should have taken our advice. Tatiana Kozlenko tagged herself in a picture (that she claims isn’t of her) on Russia’s version of Facebook of an air hostess ‘giving the finger’ to a cabin full of passengers. The picture then went viral on Twitter, her bosses found out and she was fired from her job with Aeroflot.

Admittedly, it wasn’t the most professional thing to have done. Had Miss Kozlenko taken our advice and minded her privacy settings, she probably wouldn’t be without her job right now. In fact, her bosses would most likely be blissfully unaware of what she was posting on her social networking pages and she could continue to post inappropriate pictures without any problems.

The question that this whole situation does raise though is how much should our bosses be snooping on our social networking pages?

We all know that they’re going to check us out before we get the job, that’s fairly standard practice these days. I think we all generally prepare our Facebook and Twitter profiles for such stalking when we’re looking for jobs. But once we’ve landed the job should our bosses still be checking out the content we’re posting on a regular basis?

You can understand why they would. They want to check up on us, make sure we’re not posting negative comments about the company or another company employee. Employers might also be checking your Facebook or Twitter feeds when you’re off sick to make sure you’re not pulling a fast one. But are they taking it too far?

Your Facebook page or Twitter feed is your personal space to rant and rave as you see fit, right? Well, not exactly. Check the contract you signed when you took your job or the employee handbook for your place of work. Is there a section that’s about social media use? A lot of companies do this these days. We’d recommend getting to know this very well, it could save you from landing yourself in trouble.

Equally, if you are accused of posting content that your boss doesn’t approve of, you could find protection if your posts are within the social media guidelines from your company – there is, of course, no guarantee of this, but it’s worth a shot if you find yourself in trouble.

What do you reckon? Should our bosses be checking up on us? Have you ever fallen foul of this and landed yourself in trouble at work? Let us know in the comments below, tweet us @GoThinkBig or drop us a line on Facebook.