Western Europeans are laughing at the American workplace culture. I work in an international company which has large work forces in both US and China. Once in the mid 2000s we had to lay off massive numbers. I had American employees visiting Europe, she told us that the laid-off people in US office were notified in public and asked to immediately remove their belonging from the office. We in Europe were absolutely shocked. Here everybody is called into a closed meeting room and informed of staying or leaving. It is totally up to the laid-off person to decide what to do next, he/she can either leave immediately and tell everyone, or choose to stay. Then the manager will inform everybody in a separate conference who is laid off.
Surprisingly (to you but not me) our Chinese office practiced in the same way as our European headquarter instead of US style. The company is European, but the Chinese branch did the respectful style instead of American style. The choice is by the poeple heart, not enforced by some legal system. So I won't be confident if I were you.
