TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Cultural differences could be causing headaches for some American employees at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) new fab in Arizona.

The company is facing hurdles as it applies its Taiwanese management style in a Western setting, according to an EETimes report. The report cites an anonymous post from a local employee at the Arizona site, who complains of long working hours and excessive meetings.

“These meetings add up to three hours in a day easily,” said the recruit. “That’s a lot of the workday.” They added that an update to internal software could cut down on the duration of the meets.

Regarding work times, the employee, who has been at TSMC for about one year, believes the company ought to expand its workforce so engineers can work reasonable hours each day and not have to do 12-hour shifts or stay on call over the weekend to handle emergency errors that may interrupt the fab’s around-the-clock production. The worker said TSMC will need to do this if it hopes to attract local talent from American rival Intel, who is recruiting for their nearby Arizona fab too.

These sentiments were echoed by more senior Taiwanese engineers interviewed by EETimes on request of anonymity. One said TSMC is even more demanding of its workers than in previous decades and that while the work-life balance for employees has gradually improved along with changes to Taiwan’s labor standards, it has not reached the levels seen in the U.S. and other Western countries.

One American engineer admitted local employees will need to adapt to Taiwanese ways as well. They said since a majority of employees may come from Taiwan, changes to organizational culture in Arizona are likely to be slow.

Quickly adapting to the new environment will be pivotal for the success of the fab. Recent reports have surfaced that construction of the Arizona plant has already been delayed due to labor shortages.

With so many other hurdles facing the operation, including complications from construction permits and COVID-19, the company will want to make onboarding local talent as smooth a process as possible.

●Origin：Taiwan News By Liam Gibson
●Link：https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4444781