The Pink Slip

Well kids, it’s official – the U.S. is in a recession. I don’t see what the big deal is. I could have called that months ago and I’m not by any means an economic genius.

Actually, my economics professors in college shamelessly tried to get me to change my major to economics and I seriously considered it. But I digress.

For some reason, this led me to wonder – why in the hell is the pink slip called the “pink” slip? Why not the “red” slip? Isn’t red the international color for “stop”? Like “you are about to STOP working”?

This required some serious research.

So naturally, I looked it up on Wikipedia and I have to say, I think Wikipedia can sometimes be full of shizz. It says there isn’t a significance for the use of the pink paper. Sorry, but I’m going to have to call BS on that.

More research.

According to a random crystal website, pink gemstones can be used to promote love, self-worth, order and protection from violence or aggression. Hmmm… I think we’re on to something!

Self-worth makes sense because the boss doesn’t want the former employee to feel like crap. Protection from violence or aggression makes sense too – the boss doesn’t want the former employee to lose it and cause bodily injury to him/her.

At this point, I really felt that I needed to dig into this a little bit deeper. I found another website that says in the Native American culture the color pink signifies creativity or working. Check and check.

It also said that in ‘color therapy’ (whatever that means) pink is used as an appetite suppressant, it relaxes the muscles, relieves tension and is considered “soothing” by the brain.

huh?, check, check and check.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that whoever started using pink paper to fire people back in the early 1900’s actually did have some kind of reason for using pink instead of other colors. It’s not like offices back then had reams of pink paper lying around in case they needed to fire someone. Shit, they didn’t even have color TVs back then.

Nowadays I guess employers don’t even really need pink paper. They can be Earth-friendly and just fire people over the internet. Geez… could you imagine being told “Hey everyone! Check your email at precisely 9:03 – if you don’t receive an email from HR you’re in the clear!” I would have an anxiety attack.