So, this is a question with a cultural and legal element. Legally speaking, it is possible in many U.S. states to be fired for no reason – the employer does not need to explain themselves when asked for a cause^[1]. This is to say that it’s perfectly legally possible in (many) U.S. states to be fired for a reason so petty as a customer complaint – whether or not that was the official cause notwithstanding^[2].

With that being said, employers aren’t compelled to fire their own employees in response to a customer complaint. From a management perspective, it’s generally very inefficient to fire someone because you’ll then have to cover their hours and find/train a replacement. For that reason alone, it’s already rare in most industries for truly petty firings to happen. Unfortunately, this rule of thumb gets totally flipped in low-training industries whenever there’s a surplus of bodies in the labor pool. As a manager, if you’re able to replace a burnt-out and/or below-average worker by the end of the week, why wouldn’t you roll those dice?

Even then, it’s not exactly a daily occurance even in settings where these conditions are common… with one big exception. When it comes to businesses which serve “regulars” (e.g.: hotels, restaurants, grocery stores) there exists a certain type of individual who expects that their complaints will have the power to get people fired. This variety of power-starved person tends to exclusively patronize establishments where they feel taken seriously. Such establishments deliberately choose to indulge these sleazebags because they’re potential “whales” – people who, if handled correctly, will be worth much more money than the replacement cost of the staff they cause to be fired. These firings are basically performative in nature and have nothing at all to do with something the employee could have controlled.