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TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

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Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#11

Post by radiator »

schappim wrote: post #4

TL;DR in three lines: >> “The work culture in Taiwan is really different than in the U.S.,” said a person identified as a TSMC Arizona fab equipment engineer on Glassdoor >> “The reality for people from Taiwan is that they are doing even more than 12-hour days often". >> “TSMC will have to change to an eight-hour work day five days a week.” ... well yes!

About the last line, I am surprised it is mentioned.

One would think that TSMC might have known about this small issue, before deciding to build a plant in the USA.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#13

Post by j_walter »

radiator wrote: post #11
schappim wrote: post #4

TL;DR in three lines: >> “The work culture in Taiwan is really different than in the U.S.,” said a person identified as a TSMC Arizona fab equipment engineer on Glassdoor >> “The reality for people from Taiwan is that they are doing even more than 12-hour days often". >> “TSMC will have to change to an eight-hour work day five days a week.” ... well yes!

About the last line, I am surprised it is mentioned. One would think that TSMC might have known about this small issue, before deciding to build a plant in the USA.

This is not their first plant in the US, and working >8 hour days is the norm for most engineers there.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#14

Post by square_usual »

schappim wrote: post #4

TL;DR in three lines: >> “The work culture in Taiwan is really different than in the U.S.,” said a person identified as a TSMC Arizona fab equipment engineer on Glassdoor >> “The reality for people from Taiwan is that they are doing even more than 12-hour days often". >> “TSMC will have to change to an eight-hour work day five days a week.” ... well yes!

   “An equipment engineer might start work at 8 o’clock in the morning and leave around 9 o’clock at night, but is it normal? This may happen two or three days a week
This was the line that had me in splits, like "What do you mean staying 13 hours a day two to three days a week makes it normal?"

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#15

Post by Karupan »

PKop wrote: post #5

12 hour days. Sounds pretty dystopian. Guess there's a reason Taiwan has the lowest birthrate in the world. Working themselves into oblivion.

> 12 hour days. Sounds pretty dystopian

And quite common in certain industries. I have relatives in oil rigs and aircraft maintenance who work 12 hour shifts 4 days a week. But they do usually get 3 day weekends and other perks.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#16

Post by j_walter »

siva7 wrote: post #10

“Our analysis software has been passed down since the establishment of the company [in 1987]. There may have been some slight improvements in the software along the way, but the interface remains almost the same. This seems shockingly outdated. They should hire an UX Expert and rewrite the whole thing with React

Yes, the company that has overtaken the other Semiconductor giants like Intel and Samsung must be doing a poor job with their internal tools. Not every company uses Matlab or Mathworks to analyze data...they take the simple stuff that works and form it into something no frills and useful. A brand new engineer out of college may not realize it, but there are reasons why they do what they do.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#17

Post by deepnotderp »

None of this makes sense.

1. Long shifts are normal for fab operators in the U.S., eg Intel.

2. Certain engineers are always on call if an emergency happens, also true at Intel.

3. Samsung, not exactly the “live slow and enjoy life” type of culture as an employer operates fabs just fine in the U.S.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#18

Post by myself248 »

siva7 wrote: post #10

“Our analysis software has been passed down since the establishment of the company [in 1987]. There may have been some slight improvements in the software along the way, but the interface remains almost the same. This seems shockingly outdated. They should hire an UX Expert and rewrite the whole thing with React

Change for the sake of change is always in the programmers' best interest.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#19

Post by heleninboodler »

siva7 wrote: post #10

“Our analysis software has been passed down since the establishment of the company [in 1987]. There may have been some slight improvements in the software along the way, but the interface remains almost the same. This seems shockingly outdated. They should hire an UX Expert and rewrite the whole thing with React

Lol. I'm going to assume you're joking with the last bit, but they should definitely hire a UX expert if they are interested in efficiency and accuracy and the workforce is complaining about manual work recording, handing off, and using operational parameters or state between shifts. That sounds fatiguing and error prone.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#20

Post by j_walter »

lettergram wrote: post #2

So, the fab isn't opened at all -- this is speculation. Intel has many fabs, texas instruments has many fabs, etc There wont be an issue here. IMO this reads more like a hit piece or something indicating that they want to back out of the Arizona deal or get more money. It's not really clear.

It's not open, but many of the new engineers are currently training in Taiwan. The engineer in question is simply seeing what his TSMC counterparts are doing. The Taiwanese culture is very hard working and that is why TSMC is ahead of Intel and Samsung now. You are correct though, there won't be an issue because this hard work atmosphere will weed out the weak and breed the strong.
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