Termination notice employment slips, colloquially referred to as "pink slips", are documents informing workers of the termination of their employment. As a broad guide, termination can be voluntary, involuntary, or mutually agreed upon by employer and employee. In situations of voluntary termination, employees will typically give notice to their employer, but in at-will states, this not necessarily required. Likewise, during involuntary employment termination, employers in at-will states are not required to give employees notice, but in many cases, compensate employees in some form of severance or employment assistance. Some involuntary termination of employment situations are essentially firings, which removes a worker from the workplace due to substandard performance, misconduct, gross negligence, or potentially criminal acts. In these cases, an employee will receive a notice noting "termination with prejudice", while workers laid off during downsizing will most likely receive "termination without prejudice" notices.