News TSMC Arizona struggles to overcome vast differences between Taiwanese and US work culture

[Gururu]

Good old Intel. The Boeing of Semiconductors. We'll see if they're able to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the next 6 months, but I'm doubtful. There's a reason their stock is trash and back to levels a quarter of a century ago. TSMC has been firing on all cylinders and hasn't let up to allow the competition to even catch their breath.

This has nothing to do with Intel. BTW, TSMC only manufacturers chips for other companies they don’t design.

Can’t blame Arizona employee base for this. Getting working people from communities with zero silicon industry knowledge is a tall order. How long has TMSC Taiwan been running…

 

[rluker5]

There's just no incentive to be a good worker in the U.S. You can be the best worker in your state and you still get fired when there's a recession, like everyone else. It used to be that ownership would take pay cuts to try to take care of its long-term employees. Now top level execs and owners milk the company and run it into the ground, then jump ship.

So worker culture will get worse as job security gets worse. It's tough to put in extra work when you won't get paid and you won't get credit.

Maybe other people have had good working experiences in the U.S. over the last 20 years?

My incentive is it the right thing to do.
But I'm staying on hourly. My ethic doesn't play well with salary. I go home and have no worries or guilt and I get to make what makes what people want to buy.

 

[weaver27]

Highly skilled US workers are finding that salary is not the way to go since it ends up with lots of overtime. Best practice is to work as a contractor who can get time and a half for hours over 40 per week. 12 hours a day * 6 days a week is a lot more doable when you get paid overtime rates. If you are salary then that kind of working for free is just BS. No one is going to see that kind of self-abuse as intelligent behavior. But since we are approaching a recession and there are now lots of technical people out of work, it may work until the tech sector improves.

But when you add in the toxic management, the only way you will get workers who are not fresh graduates is to pay a lot of money with overtime. If I am going to suffer, I need to be paid well to endure that nonsense.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

They're not helping themselves by using "Taiwanese transplants" either. "Work as hard as we tell you to or we'll fire you and bring in our own people" comes across about as well as "Work as hard as we tell you to or we'll fire you and replace you with a machine/AI".

Also, Taiwan is about 14,000mi², slightly bigger than Maryland, attracting talent from the far corners of the nation is a much less big deal than trying to recruit talent from around the USA, asking them to invest tens of thousands in moving cross country and take a job at a place reputed to treat you like dirt and willing to replace you at the drop of a hat and leaving you with no other nearby place to go.

 

[awake283]

They'll have to create a plan. Something like 'The Toyota Way' or Six Sigma. It can be done, but it needs to be a company philosophy. It's going to be difficult no matter what - in Taiwan kids dream of working for TSMC, not quite the same thing here.

 

[awake283]

Wow, this is depressing. Why does it have to be this way?

It's just a culture gap. I lived in Beijing for years and it was similar. Doesn't make it right, but it's just how it is. With little exposure to working conditions in other countries, and an insanely competitive job market, you get places like TSMC. They aren't alone in their mindset though, it's most of Asia.