Case #1- Bowing

So heres a pretty common area of uncertainty i run into quite often in professional environments. As an Asian, i grew up with the tendency of referring to my superiors as Sir/ Ma'am and bowing as a form of greeting/ acknowledgement/ respect. However, coming into LA, i realize more and more that people don't want to be called sirs and maams. My supervisor in my previous work told me to simply call him by his first name!! And whats more is that the more i bow, the more uneasy they seem to become...thats almost unheard of from where i used to be (Thailand, China).