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.
True enlightenment: realizing that the cake is a lie.
TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
81–90 of 303 posts
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#82None 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.
Work culuture is very different in the many countries and are in line with the gernal culture.
Based in Europe, Germany, we had this when we had meetings with chipmanufacturers in Japan vs. USA. So when a company comes from one culture into another another it always has a learning curve. Even when you employ local people helping you to adopt to the local culture. Because you have still managers in the other cultur with their expectations.
I learned that also from Daimler/Mercedes Benz. When they startet to copy their manufacturing plant from Germany into the USA, they had many quality problems and all kind of problems. Over the years there was a learning curve to adopt to the US work culture. So they still don't have only about a 2/3 output compared to the very same manufcaturing plants based in Germany.
While Asian companies have much higher working culture than Germany, I assume the experience at first is horrible for the Asian managers.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#83I actually worked in TSMC Fabs. It made me suicidal. 14 hour days 7 days a week
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
“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.
Regardless of whether it's actually normal or not, I find it funny that the engineer thinks something happening "2 to 3 times a week" doesn't make it normal.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#85Labor costs are probably the major reason why US chip firms went fabless in the past few decades. Chip production in the lower 48 makes rational sense for national security but not necessarily economic sense. The higher labor costs will be passed through to the supply chain ultimately to spendthrift consumers.
Note the comparison to Wall Street investment banking culture, where you work 14+ hrs a day 7 days a week (and you wanted to).
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#86Very 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…
> Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday morning
My Monday morning is Taiwan’s end of business day. I would expect the message is acknowledged and that at least simple questions be answered by then. OTOH, they can sure expect me to act on their requests while they are off for the evening.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#87Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#88>Moving 1,000 employees from Taiwan to Arizona won’t work, she added. Fab employees must be part of the local culture. That strategy may have some shortcomings, however. Arizona employees are mainly recent graduates who have “zero working experience,”according to Gao. “Most of them probably have never been to Asia. So cross-cultural communication and collaboration is very important.” AZ has 10 semiconductor plants in…
> Arizona employees are mainly recent graduates who have “zero working experience,”
But, hey, they are much cheaper and tolerant to long hours.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#89I thought everyone already knew this!
Labor cost and work conditions in East Asia is very different.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#90Hot take - this story is a plant and completely fabricated. A journalist using an anonymous tip on Glassdoor just screams bullshit.