TSMC Reviews

Let me start by saying that I was with the first batch of engineers that flew to Taiwan to be trained in advanced semiconductor technology so that we could then help open the fab in AZ. There is a large list of things to be critical of but I think the biggest issue is that there is no plan. From the beginning, it was clear that the company had no plan for what to do with us. We arrived and no critical document was in English (including basic SOPs or other instructions necessary to perform our job functions). So, they told us that we need to translate everything ourselves (although speaking Chinese was not a job requirement). As you might suspect, Google Translate is not the most effective tool when trying to translate important documents. I have been in Taiwan for over 14 months now and they still have yet to translate everything into English. Upon arrival, we also discovered that there really is no permanent seating for us. They didn’t even try to set up a temporary spot for us. We kind of just had to squeeze between multiple of our colleagues and fight for space on a shared desk which is not equipped with any ergonomic equipment. Multiple people have already started complaining about neck, back, and wrist pain due to the poor seating arrangement. They try to integrate us into the Taiwan Fab, but it is near impossible with the language barrier. They make it very difficult for us to have access to the systems needed to do our jobs. To this day, I still don't have access to most critical systems that I need in order to perform my work. Our training is mostly dependent on what trainer we got. But most are too busy to actually train us. HR has admitted that they have very few actual company policies. This has led to them either deferring to Taiwan HR policies or just flat out making up policies on an employee by employee basis. The relocation package to Taiwan is absolutely horrific compared to what any other American company would provide and in many cases they misrepresented what the benefits were before we arrived in Taiwan. They only provide transporation to the fab during certain times during the day. We constantly have to beg just for them to pay for transportation to/from work if we have to take a half day or sick day. They stated that they only pay for a taxi for us to go home if we already worked longer than 12 hours that day (not to mention our housing is 1 hour away from the office so they are really asking for a 14-hour day). They make up covid policies on the spot and have kicked random people out of their housing if they get covid (and then a few weeks later will change the policy and try to hide it). They attempted to control our lives outside of work by controlling what other employees we can and cannot see (when there were only a few covid cases in the entire country). Our housing isn’t equipped with drinkable water nor dryers in each unit. The housing that they showed us before we moved to Taiwan looked nothing like the housing we actually moved into. They didn’t tell us until a year in that all tsmc rules at work also apply to our housing (they still have yet to officially admit that, presumably so that they can change rules as they see fit). They do not own the housing that we stay in and have yet to tell us why they are able to make up these random rules for our housing. For those that haven't been to Taiwan, understand that tsmc has so much influence that they can pretty much convince the landlords to follow any rules they set. I understand that living conditions are different here than in the US, but when you are asking employees and their families to upend their entire lives and move to another country for 2 years, you should at least try to make it appealing. An attempt has not even been made. Everything here is highly disorganized. There is very little documentation which makes it hard to replicate certain tasks (which would normally be pretty easy to replicate). Otherwise easy tasks turn into multiple hours of tracking down the right person who knows this specific information who then tells you to reach out to this person who is busy in a meeting so waiting another 1-2 hours before finally getting an answer and moving onto the next step. Over the course of my time here, I have already had 2 directors, 3 department managers, 4 section managers, and various other mid-level bosses. No entity on earth can function properly when there is this much management constantly changing and being moved around. I haven’t heard one Taiwanese employee say they like working here. Even my first week here I would ask some of my colleagues and they were very open about not liking it here.

There is nothing positive about working for this company. The HR team is incompetent on all fronts. Any good HR employees that worked here saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship. Be careful during the hiring process because they will carefully word their vacation policy and sick time policy. They like to send out monthly newsletters showcasing them going to Top Golf, Scottsdale, and other places with no real purpose(Makes you wonder how often it was on company time). After awhile you start to wonder what they actually do all day, because it’s often doubtful to be “work”. Well, aside from constantly having to do damage control because they fail their employees constantly. They used to do Q and A discussions that got so out of hand that they limited interactions and questions before getting rid of the process all together. Defaulting to “mass” emails sent with pre-recorded announcements and poorly put together FAQs, but they didn’t usually make it to every employee so hope that a coworker can send it to you. Otherwise, they would tell managers to relay to teams because they didn’t want to deal with backlash. Their whole “culture” if you can call it that is we’re all one team so if you make a mistake, everyone on that team will blame you for making them look bad then will proceed to bully or isolate you. It’s encouraged to “highlight” co-worker’s mistakes, and the more you “highlight”, the better you will look. You will likely see verbal abuse in one of the countless (I do mean countless) Teams group chats you’re in even with higher level management in those chats. Expect your training to be poor, with training documents only just being put together in the past year, by employees new to the industry who also don’t fully understand what they’re doing. There’s a lot of half-baked, partially done training projects that eventually get abandoned until the next massive push for new, different SOPs. If you stay long enough to be a trainer, you are expected to reach your quota while also training multiple new people and being responsible for their mistakes even if it’s a process you haven’t touched in literal months with zero time given to get re-familiar with the process again. This happens a lot because you will likely be bounced from wildly different processes or even sent out to help with construction babysitting because even the construction workers despise being on site. The cliques are rampant in both the Taiwanese and American workers. Expect gossip and rumors to fly constantly, and that if your manager hears about it, they might ask you about it or just further spread the gossip. If a manager has a problem with you, expect it to go through at least 3-5 others before it reaches you. Every month you get to see a grading system, but this heavily weighed on manager and supervisor personal opinion, and if it’s a bonus month, they might give you a better grade or worse, depending on how desperate they are to keep you from quitting and how much they dislike you. Not necessarily based off your actual work for each period. Their reputation as an employer is so abysmal that you’ll find multiple job postings with the same description and location with and without TSMC’s name attached to it. In Taiwan, they like to hire young to build loyal long term employees. They are trying to do something similar by camping out high school job fairs, hiring freshly graduated people then acting surprised that they aren’t getting the same loyalty they would in Taiwan. This also means it’s a gamble on if you’ll get a hard worker or a loud, useless worker who trashes the company to anyone and everyone while expecting their trainer to pick up the slack or even get the trainer’s own wages/bonuses/compensation hurt. Also if you’re over the age of 35, they will likely not hire you. They want employees they can get a lot of years out of, so best to look elsewhere. They will ask very pointed questions in the interview, alluding to longer job history and asking if you “really want to leave such a long tenure.” Training has never been a priority. They sent people to “train” in Taiwan for a year, and when dealing with the constant frustration from people about the lack of training material or guidance, a particular manager stated “TSMC wasn’t ready to bring you here.” Fully admitting that this company puts on a front that they are thriving, they know what they’re doing, but you ask any managers, they will either try and dodge the question or blame someone else. Be prepared to lock your cellphone away and go through metal detectors. You will get a company phone, so if you have a family emergency, they can contact you, but if you’re seen using the phone regardless of if it’s family related, your work performance WILL suffer. If you have any choice, don’t work here. The pay they dangle does not outweigh the mental and physical stress (which your insurance and “mental health” benefits are subpar so don’t expect that to help you recover.)