From social taboos to long paid holidays, here's what it's like getting fired in 6 different countries

• When Americans get laid off, employers give them just hours to pack their belongings and leave.
• Other countries don't have the same approach. Germany lets laid off workers stick around for weeks after the fact, while Sweden has programs to help retrain fired employees and get them new jobs.
• In Japan, layoffs are even considered a social taboo.
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Layoffs in the US are often quick and dirty.

As depicted by George Clooney in "Up in the Air," American company managers or execs typically meet with their employees to tell them they must leave before giving them just a few hours to pack their belongings.

In other countries, however, this practice would be considered absurd - or even cruel. In Germany and other European nations, laid-off employees get weeks to stick around so they can finish projects and get a head start on applying to new jobs, Erin Meyer, a professor at global business school INSEAD who has studied how cultural differences impact businesses, told Business Insider.

"Firing in the US is like pulling off a Band-Aid: you have a problem, you pull out the Band-Aid, it hurts a lot, and the problem's gone," she said. "In Europe, it's more like boiling a lobster: you put the lobster in, slowly the lobster cooks, and finally the time is done."

Here's what it's like to be fired in six different countries.