Comments on: Ask Mike: the dreaded pink slip

By: d.

d. — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:06:34 +0000

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?

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:49:21 +0000

I agree it’s tough finding a Job in today’s Economy.

By: heather

heather — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:56:13 +0000

I recently was fired from my job for “POOR PREFORMANCE” a few weeks after going above my supervisors head..hmmm?

By: james

james — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:49:38 +0000

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

By: mekalm

mekalm — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:18:40 +0000

At the company I work for the termination slip is actually green

By: Harold

Harold — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:19:34 +0000

Could this refer to the pink paycheck you get as your last paycheck from the company you worked for?

By: Darshan

Darshan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:53:46 +0000

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.

By: Rickianblaster

Rickianblaster — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:30:10 +0000

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.

By: Lala

Lala — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:42:20 +0000

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.

By: Holly

Holly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:24:56 +0000

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.