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TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

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Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#21

Post by mlyle »

square_usual wrote: post #14
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 ?"

Normal fab work is a 12 hour shift-- plus having to suit up and unsuit outside those shifts-- 3.5 times per week in the US. Yes, this means some overtime.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#22

Post by j_walter »

cppjim wrote: post #12

I thought it was common for fab operators to work a 11 hour shifts in the US. Also, if Samsung can figure out how to work with Americans, I'm sure TSMC can too.

Fab operators and technicians generally work compressed shifts yes, but not usually engineers which is what the glassdoor reviewer is. Engineers work M-F usually and generally 8-5, but when the fab needs them they are there. That may entail the occasional 12 hour day, but that is what comes with the job (and the pay).

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#23

Post by random12345678 »

rjzzleep wrote: post #6

Very interesting. Yeah labour is cheap in Taiwan. Even highly qualified, specialized labour. That's why talent leaves to China, USA and Israel. But about the factory itself, American Factory was quite interesting[1]. Chinese company, but similar culture clash. It is interesting however that from what I have seen Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday mornin…

The level of entitlement from Westerners is unreal. "You can't have your cake and eat it too"

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#26

Post by heleninboodler »

j_walter wrote: post #16
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.

> “That’s a lot of the work day. Some of the solution may be in software. Most of these meetings could be automated. The engineer who last worked with the equipment would record tool status and changes and make recommendations” to the next shift.

... since 1987.

This process sounds like a liability to me. If you're having daily hours-long meetings for humans to communicate information to other humans, who then have to manually incorporate that information into their operations, and people who know the process say it could be automated, this sounds like a massive inefficiency (and opportunity for error) that only exists because labor has always been cheap enough to allow it to continue. Why wouldn't you spend a little money trying to optimize it?

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#27

Post by radiator »

j_walter wrote: post #13
radiator wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, I see now in your and others' comments that I had some false impressions about working conditions in american factories.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#28

Post by chad_stevens »

random12345678 wrote: post #23
rjzzleep wrote: post #6

Very interesting. Yeah labour is cheap in Taiwan. Even highly qualified, specialized labour. That's why talent leaves to China, USA and Israel. But about the factory itself, American Factory was quite interesting[1]. Chinese company, but similar culture clash. It is interesting however that from what I have seen Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday mornin…

The level of entitlement from Westerners is unreal. "You can't have your cake and eat it too"

Yes we can ;)

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#29

Post by emodendroket »

j_walter wrote: post #20
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.

This seems like total nonsense. Korea's work culture is not exactly Scandinavia and even the US is tough by the standards of other high-income countries. Plus, like, how did Dutch ASML get ahead, did they get some sort of special dispensation?
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