Worker treatment that's acceptable in Taiwan simply won't be tolerated by US employees

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the world’s largest advanced computer chip manufacturers, continues finding its efforts to get its Arizona facility up and running to be more difficult than it anticipated. The chip maker’s 5nm wafer fab was supposed to go online in 2024 but has faced numerous setbacks and now isn’t expected to begin production until 2025. The trouble the semiconductor has been facing boils down to a key difference between Taiwan and the U.S.: workplace culture. A New York Times report highlights the continuing struggle.

One big problem is that TSMC has been trying to do things the Taiwanese way, even in the U.S. In Taiwan, TSMC is known for extremely rigorous working conditions, including 12-hour work days that extend into the weekends and calling employees into work in the middle of the night for emergencies. TSMC managers in Taiwan are also known to use harsh treatment and threaten workers with being fired for relatively minor failures.

TSMC quickly learned that such practices won’t work in the U.S. Recent reports indicated that the company’s labor force in Arizona is leaving the new plant over these perceived abuses, and TSMC is struggling to fill those vacancies. TSMC is already heavily dependent on employees brought over from Taiwan, with almost half of its current 2,200 employees in Phoenix coming over as Taiwanese transplants.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.deEnglish
    187·
    3 months ago

    I’m reminded of the time Walmart tried to enter Germany with their work culture. But in their case it wasn’t just that the Germans didn’t like it. It was illegal. And the German customers were weirded out by Walmart employees smiling and being so cheerful all the time.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      70·
      3 months ago

      Apple still tries to have the cherry up-beat customer services department in the UK and it doesn’t work. It’s a Saturday, no one wants to be doing this call, don’t pretend otherwise it’s weird.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
      302·
      3 months ago

      But in their case it wasn’t just that the Germans didn’t like it. It was illegal.

      I want to learn more?..

      • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.deEnglish
        49·
        3 months ago

        https://youtu.be/59AMOwlf6XQ

        Don’t know if it’s in the video, but as far as I remember it was about how working hours were calculated and about worker surveillance. And Walmart trying to control worker’s private lifes by forbidding sexual relationships between workers.

        • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
          32·
          3 months ago

          Also things like selling their loss leaders below purchase price. The kicker is that they still lost the price war they started even though the German discounters kept things legal.

          Then there was something about not wanting to publish their balance sheets as they’re required to, shutting out the works council from stuff that the works council has a right to be involved in, the list is endless. Not only did they not have a German CEO to manage all that stuff they apparently didn’t even have German lawyers.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
          17·
          3 months ago

          And Walmart trying to control worker’s private lifes by forbidding sexual relationships between workers.

          Just why would they do that? And were that their concern, wouldn’t such people work better, not worse?

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
              52·
              3 months ago

              Well, that’s quite strange math, the amount of breakups between Walmart employees is expected to be less that the amount of relationships. Facts from the former are mostly a subset of facts from the latter actually.

              Unless we consider the possibility that couples come to work at Walmart and break up there, but couples rarely form while already there.

          • Fred@programming.devEnglish
            12·
            3 months ago

            Justification I’ve heard is that if one part of the couple is managing the other, or is promoted after the relationship started, then:

            • there is a power imbalance in the couple, possibly one is coercing the other (« I can’t leave him/her, they’ll make my worklife hell / get me fired »);
            • there is a risk the manager will promote their partner even if their job performance doesn’t warrant it

            Companies will want to both avoid this sort of things, and avoid being seen to enable this sort of things. They might want to move one of the parties to a different department so that the higher up one doesn’t make promotion decisions for the other.

            I’ve once worked at a company that wanted to know about relationships between their employees and suppliers/customers’ employees, again because that might enable situations where a supplier / customer is treater favourably because of personal relationships

      • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.worldEnglish
        181·
        3 months ago

        By law: 8 hours as the rule, never more than 10 hours for exceptions.

        By contract, they can go a little above the 8 hours.

        If they go above the 10, it can cost the company a lot even for a single case.