Johannes – As someone who used to work in a call centre, I’m afraid that I have to burst your bubble. This was around 7 years ago and it was damn hard to get fired…usually only people involved in direct sales that weren’t performing got the axe, and more often than not the axe was a shift to a customer service project. From there, if you showed up, you kept your job.

I do not, however, see tipping as a necessity – I tip based on friendliness and service. If my server was rude, there’s no tip.

For phone customer service, I’ve started commending the people that have done well with me by talking to their supervisors / leaving a message with their supervisors for exemplary customer service done by above said worker – the same for bad service. It only adds 5 minutes to the call and I feel I’m helping myself by weeding out the idiots from call centres.