[dragonwriter]

The US has much weaker employee protections. Aside from workers in unions and certain protected scenarios, layoffs usually occur with zero notice. (And, often, when associated with public bad financial returns, shortly after management denies any layoffs are coming.)

[pkaye]

The WARN act is part of US labor law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraini...

For larger companies with layoffs beyond a threshold, they employer must give 60 days notice. I think they can instead give 60 days severance.

[dragonwriter]

Yeah, but the threshold is quite large; 500+ workers at a single site, or both 50-499 workers and over a third of the site workforce.

The Stack Overflow layoffs are 60 people and 20% of their workforce, and so wouldn't (even at a single site) be subject to the WARN Act’s 60-day notice requirement.

[pkaye]

True it could be stronger. Some states like California have more stringent versions.