@mcnees
Years ago, I worked for a branch of an American bank in Europe. One day, all the staff worldwide received an e-mail informing them that the banks share price “on the street…”, presumably meaning Wall Street, was under pressure and the management did not want to allow it to drop so low as to invite a hostile takeover bid. Consequently, the e-mail continued the management had decided to cut the staff headcount worldwide by, from memory, I think it was 650 to enhance the price of shares in the bank.
I was a party to the conversation between one of the directors of my subsidiary and some nameless senior manager in the you US, as it occured on speakerphone and the person talking at my end was a 6 foot Texan woman whose booming voice could be heard from a mile away! The senior manager in America was outraged that in Europe, you cannot simply sack people at the drop of a hat. In the end, the subsidiary that I worked for limited its redundancy to one single person who nevertheless, had to be given six months’ notice plus vacation days on full salary as that is the law in this country.