Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

eetimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 303 posts

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#71

Post by frozenport »

kamaal wrote: post #66
deepnotderp wrote: post #17

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.

There are long hours, and there are long hours. I consider my self a fairly hard working person, in my first job I've seen situations where people came in on a Monday and would go to their homes next Monday. I've done a full time start up with a day job, quite literally coding every waking hour of my life(like 2 - 4 hours sleep a day) for years. And then I relocated from Bangalore to Bay Area for a while, and met a f…

>> I knew several Chinese colleagues and friends like these. They are all good people wanting to make a good life by working hard, nothing to blame them. But it was kind of an unwritten rule that if you had two Chinese working in your team, you had no chance beating them.

I've had the opposite experience. Most of the ones I knew were work evasive, and spent substantial time craming for leet code. I think there might be a generation gap at work.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#73

Post by liquidify »

kamaal wrote: post #66
deepnotderp wrote: post #17

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.

There are long hours, and there are long hours. I consider my self a fairly hard working person, in my first job I've seen situations where people came in on a Monday and would go to their homes next Monday. I've done a full time start up with a day job, quite literally coding every waking hour of my life(like 2 - 4 hours sleep a day) for years. And then I relocated from Bangalore to Bay Area for a while, and met a f…

Yeah, maybe you were in a bubble. Chinese are awesome, but they are human. Many a deeply racist, and have a number of other problems. Work as life culture is not something to look up to. You probably should re-evaluate your own objectives if you believe working round the clock while neglecting any other form of life is something to look up to.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#74

Post by MangoCoffee »

dehrmann wrote: post #25
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.

You know about 996, right?

this is not 996. its common in the semis industry even in the US.

when i was younger i used to work in a Motorola fab at Austin, TX. you work couple days in a week like 3 days and overnight into the morning then for the rest of week you are off.

this got nothing to do with 996 or whatever. its the norm in the semis industry.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#75

Post by wolframhempel »

sdoering wrote: post #64
sverhagen wrote: post #41

So, they spoke with one anonymous staff member, and then sourced, wait for it... Glassdoor. I'm not saying these claims are untrue or that they even seem untrue, but it's still squeezing an article out of... not a whole lot. Glassdoor doesn't have a reputation (in my circles) for "balanced opinions".

When looking at or using platforms like Glasdoor one always has to take the "selection bias" into account. People posting on a platform selfselect. And it is often when something is wrong, that one tends to feel the need to communicate that. When all is fine there often just is no need to communicate that. So using Glasdoor without taking this into consideration is at least an interesting editorial decision.

On average, reviews tend to the extremes, whether on Glassdoor, Amazon, or anywhere else. People with balanced experiences feel less of a need to voice them than people who are elated or furious about a job or product.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#77

Post by XenophileJKO »

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"

Make a bigger cake.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#78

Post by _ht0b »

I work at another semiconductor manufacturer in the US. You could find and replace TSMC with my employer and write the exact same article.

Re: giving PhDs menial tasks and working a lot/odd hours

I've spent a lot of time thinking about it and it actually makes a certain kind of sense. From an engineering standpoint, there can be a lot variability in the amount of work needed. Some days you are on fire solving issues with the tools and some days there is almost nothing to do. Better to hire one PhD who is used to that kind of variable pace and pay them a relatively high, fixed salary, rather than 2-4 bachelors covering all shifts who will eat up more payroll, have lower peak effectiveness, and have even less to do per person. The pointless, excessive meetings likely exist to fill up the extra downtime and are easily skipped when you have real work to do (or if, realizing they serve no purpose, you come up with schemes to get out of them). If TSMC is doing the exact same thing on this front, I am even more convinced the so-called headcount shortage will never be fixed.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#79

Post by kamaal »

liquidify wrote: post #73
kamaal wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are long hours, and there are long hours. I consider my self a fairly hard working person, in my first job I've seen situations where people came in on a Monday and would go to their homes next Monday. I've done a full time start up with a day job, quite literally coding every waking hour of my life(like 2 - 4 hours sleep a day) for years. And then I relocated from Bangalore to Bay Area for a while, and met a f…

Yeah, maybe you were in a bubble. Chinese are awesome, but they are human. Many a deeply racist, and have a number of other problems. Work as life culture is not something to look up to. You probably should re-evaluate your own objectives if you believe working round the clock while neglecting any other form of life is something to look up to.

>>Yeah, maybe you were in a bubble. Chinese are awesome, but they are human. Many a deeply racist, and have a number of other problems.

My interactions have been very positive, and being an Indian I have never experienced any racism from them. There is a language gap for sure, and due to that times, more than a round of clarification is needed to be on the same page, but that was nothing I couldn't work out.

I agree your interactions would have been different.

It is also possible that I interacted with subset of Chinese immigrants in the Bay Area, which generally happens to be a place for people who in general value diversity and happens to be a meritorious place.

>>You probably should re-evaluate your own objectives

I have, I don't believe in linear returns any more and my days of attempting to scale personal growth as a function of hours worked are behind me. You grow up with age and your perspectives change too.

At the same time I have mad respect for immigrants(as a former failed immigrant myself) and other communities that are working day and night for a good life. More power to them.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#80

Post by kamaal »

WJW wrote: post #72
xyzzy123 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can eat it, but then you don't have it.

Why would I want even more cake after I just ate some? That just seems unhealthy.

That saying is generally for people who wish to keep cake as a trophy, but cant wait to enjoy eating it too.

In this case the point being brutal working hours and affluence don't go hand in hand.

Post reply on HN