Ask Mike: the dreaded pink slip
Hey Guys,
In today’s economic downturn, holding onto a job has become, well, a full time job. With so many workers living in perpetual fear of the pink slip, I got to wondering how the term originated. Once upon a time, were workers given actual pink pieces of paper when they were fired? Seems almost too cruel to be true.
After a Yahoo! search on “pink slip origin,” I came across this interesting blog from the urban legend experts at Snopes.com. They delve into the history of the phrase and note that its origin has never been verified.
But the lack of evidence hasn’t stopped the theories. One of the most popular explanations has to do with Henry Ford. According to legend, back in the early days of Ford Motor Company, when an employee was performing substandard work, he or she would find a pink slip of paper in their cubbyhole. Pink slip meant do not come back.
Good story, but nobody knows if it’s really true. An interview with an editor from the Oxford English Dictionary on PublicRadio.org offers a similar explanation (or lack thereof). Despite historians having looked into the origin of the phrase, nobody has ever found an actual example of a pink slip of paper having ever been used to fire someone.
The editor does note that pink pieces of paper have long held connections to rejection. In the olden days, when a typographer made a mistake, he or she was given a note on pink paper. The theory: if a typographer got enough of those dreaded pink notes, he or she would likely have been shown the door.
There are plenty of stories online from people who say they were given literal pink slips, but apparently none have satisfied historians. Have any of you ever received an actual pink slip when laid off? The closest I ever came was a terse phone call from my boss when I was a teenager. I would have fired me, too.
Thanks for reading,
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I’m not entirely sure if this is where it comes from, but this is my theory, having lost a job or two in my lifetime. The “pink slip” might come from after recieving an employee’s last write-up. When an employee is written up, they recieve a pink copy for personal records. When you recieve your last write-up, you recieve your final pink copy of the write-up, henceforth, getting the pink slip. Like I said, this is my theory.
At our school district in suburban Detroit, teacher layoffs are literally pink slips attached to your paycheck.
I’m not sure if this is a cause or result of the “pink slip” phrase, but a couple years ago I did a project on the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were an all-black unit of WWII flyers, who were very distinguished.
Since blacks were not common in the American army at the time, this was one of the places for them to go to be a soldier. In one of the documentaries I watched featuring the Tuskegee Airmen, it mentioned that at the Tuskegee military school located in Alabama, the soldiers would get pink slips as warnings for misconduct. Since many of the commanders were racist, these slips were very common. They were also feared, as three pink slips meant dismissal from te school..
Pink slips were considered to be ‘Unmanly” hence if you were told your were woking in the ‘pink’ you were not doing your manly best at your job, so you should leave.
Having received my pink slip 5 months ago it’s been a nightmare. I have been to numerous interviews, taking several placement tests and nothing has become of it. I am hopeful there is something out there for me.
I worked at an electronics co.and no I don’t remember a pink slip.We had meetings telling of future layoffs, all the time. We lived in fear every day for years of being out of work. It was very stressful. Maybe that is how everyone does it. Then they offered me a temp position without benifits. Driving two hours a day, I quit but still got my retirement.
Well I work at a local golf course, so I am off until may, the only thing I got when I got laid off was my last pay stub which was blue and my t4 which was white, although the reason for leaving was lack of work and was written in pink.
I would go with the same sort of theory as Michael A. Except I would think that so many forms come in triplicate: White, yellow and pink. One for their records, one for other department records and one for you
pink slip = fired? not quite methinks.. pink slip = warning. after three warnings (three pink slips) you will be fired, yes the comment above has it right, the pink slip is the receivers copy from a carbon book (like a receipt book) report to your employee file. the system is still used in a few of the older companies here in australia
and, yes, i have seen one (issued a long time ago from the company Boans Warehouse in Perth) which was issued to a friend
what’s bad is when you are let go but you get no unemployment. employers are taught what to say so they don’t have to pay unemployment.
I agree. Whenever we have attendance issues, we have to sign a paper and the duplicate copy is pink. After we receive our 8th point, and we have no bonus hours to buy it back, we know to best not bother coming in because we already know what HR will say.
In Australia – it’s true. minions employed by high profile companies are sent out to “downsize “areas not productive or viable to the future or direction of the company.. thing is, these people feel secure
employed by a corporation, handing out pink slips
only to return to base and find their very own pink slip
/then they get “being used”
I don’t know about jobs, but some of my friends when they went to a private school got pink slips if they were in trouble with the teacher/principle.
Did anyone think to ask the Ford Motor Company? Long-standing companies like that usually have pretty good records.
Similar to the previous poster, I’m not sure where this ‘pink slip’ idea came from.
I have never heard of anyone actually getting the pink slip either, and I have some friends that have been fired, and all that happened to them was a meeting with their boss. I think the pink slip must have just been an idea thought up in a movie or book (Pulp 1915) and from there became a stereotype.
After searching the pink slip on certain websites like Wikipedia, none of them have much information. They just show the equivalents in other countries. It is interesting though that the equivalents like P45 in UK are being used to date.
ok um I definently received a pink piece of paper when I got fired from one of my jobs a few years ago, and I had heard that you needed it if you try going to the unemployment office. So now I’m confused…
Back in “the day”, most forms of communication or requests were done in triplicate. This was before computers. The carbon based copying method was standard issue since the 1920′s. When you had something requested, ordered, or even wrote up and employee or even fired/quit, the requisite was to write or type the form in triplicate with carbon paper so that there would be a copy for each department that processed it. One for the boss, one for the personnel dept, and one for you. These forms were usually in White on top, green or yellow in the middle, and pink on the bottom. These colors were used not as just a standard color coding system but they were general colors that were cheap to reproduce in mass quantities. Same as when trading “pinks” on cars. Before there was a “DMV” established process of car ownership, the pink copy was your proof of ownership. When you bought a car, the purchase was done again in triplicate or quadruplet, and the last copy, the pink, was yours. If lost or stolen, the next copy you would have had to get from the dealer and pay for a notary to authorize it. All you had to do was sign the bottom of the pink where it said “transfer of ownership” (in some states it required a notary and in some just a witness) and the car was exchanged.
More than likely, based on the carbon copy way of processing paper work, this is where the phrase “getting the pink slip” originated from.
At my private school if we get in trouble we get a pink slip. It’s a warning; 3=lunch detention, 5=weekend detention and call to parents.
In a few of my prior places of employment, I saw other employees get fired, and they typically did wind up walking out with a pink sheet of paper, from a triplicate sheet. I don’t believe it had any true important significance, it’s just this thing that we have in our heads, “The fired employee takes the pink one” because this concept is so much a part of our subconscious.
While pink paper is used for several disciplinary actions in education systems as well as employers, I it is definitely commonly accepted as a term for being fired.
Curiously enough, when prior employers just didn’t have the needed hours for an employee, they didn’t use pink slips, they just stopped giving them hours and eventually sent a formal letter.
The Ford idea sounds plausible, though I agree that they might actually be able to verify\denounce this theory.
Human Resources forms (and other business forms) were multiple parts – white on top, with a yellow copy, a pink copy, and sometimes a goldenrod copy.
Your termination is processed (in the days of paper) on one of those forms. The white copy goes in your personnel file, the yellow copy goes to payroll, and the pink copy goes to the employee.
You will often get a pink receipt from, for example, a mechanic garage, because they use the same type of forms.
Could this refer to the pink paycheck you get as your last paycheck from the company you worked for?
At the company I work for the termination slip is actually green
Hey Mike, lets get one thing straight…getting a “pink slip” means getting layed off, NOT FIRED!!!!
Getting fired is what happens when you refuse to adhere to company policy etc…Getting layed off happens at no fault of the employee. I can’t stand it when someone (who still has a job) refers to me as being fired because I was layed off. GET IT RIGHT
I recently was fired from my job for “POOR PREFORMANCE” a few weeks after going above my supervisors head..hmmm?
I agree it’s tough finding a Job in today’s Economy.
I bought a car from a private party.
I lost the pink slip
the previos owner went to jail for a long time.
How can i sell the car?