In the U.S., employee protections (or lack thereof) are largely determined at the state level rather than the federal level. What protections that do exist in law are practically unenforceable.
Decades of union-busting lobbying has resulted in "at-will" employment being the default in many states that formerly had better employee protections. Contracts are now uncommon, and contracts that do not heavily favor the employer are rare. This was sold as making it easier to hire and fire employees, but my observations suggest that it has not made it easier to hire.
Working in much of the U.S., aside from a few specific states, is toiling under the Sword of Damocles. My worst-case anecdote was being laid off with 3 days of notice with no severance. In theory, that should have triggered a federal penalty, since the entire office facility was laid off, but the company did some sort of legal sidestep to avoid that, which amounted to "You're not being laid off; we're just not giving you any work or paying you." When I found a new job 2 weeks later, the company demanded a resignation letter in order to release my security clearance responsibility to the new company. I refused, but I still had to write a note for their records explaining how layoffs work.
I'm continually surprised at people who come from Europe or Commonwealth countries to work in the US. Perhaps they just don't know?
Decades of union-busting lobbying has resulted in "at-will" employment being the default in many states that formerly had better employee protections. Contracts are now uncommon, and contracts that do not heavily favor the employer are rare. This was sold as making it easier to hire and fire employees, but my observations suggest that it has not made it easier to hire.
Working in much of the U.S., aside from a few specific states, is toiling under the Sword of Damocles. My worst-case anecdote was being laid off with 3 days of notice with no severance. In theory, that should have triggered a federal penalty, since the entire office facility was laid off, but the company did some sort of legal sidestep to avoid that, which amounted to "You're not being laid off; we're just not giving you any work or paying you." When I found a new job 2 weeks later, the company demanded a resignation letter in order to release my security clearance responsibility to the new company. I refused, but I still had to write a note for their records explaining how layoffs work.
I'm continually surprised at people who come from Europe or Commonwealth countries to work in the US. Perhaps they just don't know?