TSMC’s debacle in the American desert

rest of world ^ | 23 April 2024 | Viola Zhou

[anthropocene_x]

Bruce the young American engineer had been eager for a stable, high-paying job in the semiconductor industry. Then, in late 2020, he received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The job sounded like he’d be “pushing the boundaries of human technology,” he recalled to Rest of World.

Over the next two years, Bruce came to realize the reality of working at TSMC wasn’t what he had envisioned. While working on nanometer-level processes to make state-of-the-art chips, he struggled with language barriers, long hours, and a strict hierarchy. Bruce soon began second-guessing what he had signed up for.

Other U.S. workers who spoke to Rest of World echoed Bruce’s concerns. The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company. Taiwanese TSMC veterans described their American counterparts as lacking the kind of dedication and obedience they believe to be the foundation of their company’s world-leading success.

TSMC’s work culture is notoriously rigorous, even by Taiwanese standards. Former executives, speakin about Taiwan’s competitiveness compared to the U.S., said that “if [a machine] breaks down at one in the morning, in the U.S. it will be fixed in the next morning. But in Taiwan, it will be fixed at 2 a.m.” And, he added, the wife of a Taiwanese engineer would “go back to sleep without saying another word.”

Managers sometimes applied what they called “stress tests” by announcing assignments due the same day or week, to make sure the Americans were able to meet tight deadlines and sacrifice personal time like Taiwanese workers. Managers shamed American workers in front of their peers, sometimes by suggesting they quit engineering.

One former American TSMC engineer said his manager instructed him to follow along with daily meetings, which were conducted in Mandarin, just by looking at the associated PowerPoints.

[T.B. Yoits]

So... the "illiterate uhmurricans" who consistently make cars notorious for high quality in the Toyota plants in

Alabama
Kentucky
Mississippi
Missouri
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia

couldn't understand the machines?

[NorthMountain]

Toyota has multiple factories in America.

[NorthMountain]

An even dozen Toyota factories in these United States.

[Arlis]

The work ethic is ASIAN, not Taiwanese.

Asian culture is so foreign to us. Sacrifice & suffering for life and their jobs is normal for them. The individual is nothing, their society or group is more important.

One reason we better hope to never go to war with them. Remember the Japanese in WWII - suicidal missions were part of their tactics......

[Nervous Tick]

>> The work ethic is ASIAN, not Taiwanese.

Point taken.

[tinamina]

😂