business culture, problems with your staff and theft

TSMC is not going to have it easy in the US, not easy. Its FB under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, is still in progress, some parts are finished and are already working “normally”, note the quotes here, because the normality of an Asian company is not really that of a Western one. And it is that TSMC has serious problems in many points to be efficient and to be able to perform in the US, it is a business culture problem which carries a series of inconveniences, such as the need for personnel, theft, security and hours worked.

Current and former employees, usually because they have left the company, have begun to rate it in one of the most demanded portals by workers in terms of company rating: Glassdoor. On said portal, after 91 score requests submitted, the company, TSMC, has only achieved an approval rating of 27%. In other words, a little more than a quarter of all its workers recommend it or are happy. And of course, in Europe we are already taking note.

TSMC, a problem, a culture shock and insufficient staff in the US.

We have been warning you since the company’s program was launched in the US: there will be serious problems finding qualified workers, and the same, even more serious if possible, will happen in Europe. It’s not that there aren’t engineers, high-level maintenance people, or the like, it’s a cultural problem. But what is it specifically?

There is talk of difficulty adapting to TSMC’s corporate culture, but the problems are really simple. For TSMC, as the world’s leading Taiwanese company, the priorities are clear: work first, life second. It is stipulated that engineers are putting in an average of 70 hours per week from Mondays to Sundaysor what is the same, 10 hours a day without a breakthere is no time to lose, and of course, many are resigning directly from their positions.

For this reason, TSMC is bringing more and more staff from Taiwan, because its investment is faltering and it may soon have legal problems with the state of Arizona, despite being looking for 4,500 American professionals.

Robberies, fear and no prevention system

In addition, and as if this were not enough, the company is not treating the safety of its workers well. Phoenix is ​​not Taipei in terms of security, respect for others and, ultimately, civility. The so-called TSMC Village complex, also known as the TSMC Village, divides its stay complex into two: Village A and Village B.

From Taiwan, it is stated that several teenagers entered Village A to rob, breaking the windows of several cars and stealing the contents they had inside. Seven cars affected, but there are more, because there are already several squats in the complexes, and even last week a thief tried to steal a car, and when he failed to do so, he crashed it, pushing it downhill against one of the premises of the TSMC complex.

TSMC closer to Europe, but will it repeat the same problem as in the US?

There are several things to keep in mind here. The first is that the talks between TSMC and Germany are on track, but the same two key issues remain as a month ago:

• There is a lack of industrial groups (companies) to supply TSMC.
• There is a labor shortage.

The German government has said it is working to meet the needs of the Taiwanese, but what is missing, it seems, is the ever-widening cultural differences between Europe and Taiwan.

The fact that NXP, Infineon and Bosch are already in league with TSMC for the company to land in Europe does not exclude the problem of culture and work that separate both continents. Namely, in Europe we have holidays, normally 21 working days excluding weekends, which is unacceptable in Taiwan.

On the other hand, the salaries in Germany are higher than the Phoenix, and lastly, the Germans are not really very hard workers and instead are very likely to fight for their rights as workers.

If manufacturing chips for TSMC in the US is 5 times more expensive than in Taiwan, in Germany it will not be very far from that figure, if not above. Therefore, TSMC must land manufacturing chips to 28nm for the automotive industry, but there is already talk that the EU is tightening, and there is speculation about 20 nm with integrated PRAM.

The objective is more ambitious, and it is intended to make the leap to 3 nm SUPERFIN in a short time thanks to ASML and its scanners from Holland/Netherlands, in fact, it is expected that the N3A get to cars in 2025 and that TSMC’s investment, therefore, has to be higher. Hence, they are also asking for more security and money. That TSMC ends up in Germany can go very well, or very badly, let’s hope that the EU is learning from the problems that are emerging in the US to make it clear what business culture should be like, at least in part, at our borders.