> In the UK, the company I was working for laid off about half the dev team but made them work their six(!) months notice. Yeah, that's a completely different

> In the UK, the company I was working for laid off about half the dev team but made them work their six(!) months notice. Yeah, that's a completely different situation. Those employees had employment contracts requiring six months' notice. So they're gonna be paid for six months at the end, and they might as well be producing value for the company the whole time. Meanwhile in the US we mostly don't have employment contracts. Anyone can be fired/laid off at any time for almost any reason, and that takes effect immediately. The one caveat is that WARN notifications might required 60-90 days notice depending on the state and size of the layoff. But for whatever reason, employers here don't want their employees working for those last months like they would in the UK.