this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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The world's largest chipmaker promised to create thousands of US jobs. There are growing tensions over whether US workers have the skills or work ethic to do them.::Jobs at the TSMC semiconductor factory in Arizona could require long hours and total obedience. Americans may push back on the company's culture.

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[–] ErikDegenerik@lemmy.world 285 points 2 years ago (8 children)

"If an engineer [in Taiwan] gets a call when he is asleep, he will wake up and start dressing," he said. "His wife will ask: 'What's the matter?' He would say: 'I need to go to the factory.' The wife will go back to sleep without saying another word. This is the work culture."

Fuck that shit, that's not work culture, that's exploitation.

[–] gramathy@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What the fuck needs to get done by a chop engineer on short notice at midnight anyway

Or are they just calling line workers engineers to avoid paying overtime

[–] SgtSilverLining@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

When I worked in electronics manufacturing, production engineers were frequently out on the floor. Common issues were:

  • a machine was placing a part incorrectly
  • assembly workers couldn't understand blueprints
  • materials were getting damaged in a process that shouldn't have been a problem
  • a custom design tool/rig was not acting like it was supposed to
  • there's something clearly wrong with a process (like it was designed for one person and not an assembly line)

If anything major (or potentially major) came up, production completely stopped until the problem could be assessed by an engineer. Assembly workers weren't allowed to fix things and they couldn't estimate the cost of continuing to run a job with defects. Our engineers didn't work 2nd/3rd shift though, so every time a job had issues we'd have to drop it and leave it for first shift. A downed line for 8+ hours is a LOT of money and for a bigger company would warrant calling someone in.

(I think the bigger issue is not "work ethics" like the article said or "need" like you said, but that the US has rules and pay requirements for on call employees)

[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

Call me an engineer and you need to pay me a lot more though so that doesn't really make sense.

[–] whataboutshutup@discuss.online 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Honey, I'm waiting you tonight.

Sorry, I'm busy.

I made something special...

No, I can't.

Please, just say you cheat on me. I beg.

Sorry, sug. It's just work. Again.

What a moodbreaker. Fifth time in a row. Fuck your boss.

Actually, he promoted me and said you can move in with me there.

Where?

Our quarters within the facility. We can have our time on my breaks. They can even hire you too! They've even built a kindergarten there, so we are full served as a young family.

Divorce. Now.

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I have no problem with that, as long as you pay for what is worth.

I know engineers who had work where their had to be on call like that. However they were doing rotation and they were being compensate for all the time they had to be on call.

From what I remember they were getting 0.3 days of paid holidays for each 12h they were being on call. This was on top of their 5 weeks+ of paid holidays (France).

I think the issue is not the work ethic of the employees, but the ethics of the employer in this case.

Edit: I forgot to say but if course if they are actually called then they get paid for the hours they spend at the factory on top of the compensation.

[–] maporita@unilem.org 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Our company is like that, but you're not going to get a call every night. Each person in our (small) support group does a rotation of standby one week every two months. During that week you need to be available after hours and have your cell phone on. The upside is that we get time off for working after hours and we get extra days off just for being on standby which more than compensates, plus we get good overtime pay.

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 4 points 2 years ago

We have this as well. One year into it and I have never been called in. The network engineers have been several times, but the pay is compensation for the inconvenience.

[–] average650@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

That depends on pay and other obligations.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I work in the US and I'm on call 24 hours a day basically doing IT work it's not that crazy

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Unless you let yourself get fucked over, you're not on call 24/7/365 and for the time you are on call, you should get some sort of compensation.

They want to pay you shitty for 8 hours and than let you work 12-14 plus being on call for the rest of the day.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 3 points 2 years ago

Here in Italy "being on call" is a contract clause, it's often a rotation roster between multiple similar employees, and requires extra compensation

[–] TwoGems@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

It's disgusting is what it is