TSMC

Great industry-leading silicon manufacturing, and you can learn about all the reasons they are the best. They make products for Apple, AMD, Nvidia, and everyone else needing chips. Great country-leading pay for the assignees and good pay for the local US hires, but it comes with complete life sacrifice. Challenge your sanity and balance of what is right. A tight, family-like community; think "Band of Brothers" or "Platoon," as that is what it is like and forces that kind of community, wink wink.

Absolute crazy hours and unmerciful and unreasonable daily requests from your manager. The first-line section managers are just the poor messengers trying to survive the unreasonable and unmerciful requests from the department managers and directors and above.

The higher up you go, the more you find them numbed and brainwashed into accepting the TSMC way for success and money. Tasks are assigned and expected to be completed with no consideration of the cost or practicality. That is part of the secret of the success, at huge human cost.

HR has no control or ability to create or coach a better environment. Multiple HR directors have left because no truly considerate and caring HR could accept the way senior managers and higher-ups talk and belittle their subordinates.

Things in Taiwan were rough, but at least attempts were made to train. Things now are such a mess, and engineers and managers are told to do tasks they have no skill or background for but must do. Morale is terrible, and almost everyone that can is leaving. Those tied down due to family or immigration find making the move harder, and the assignees have the worst.

Given visas, they can’t leave, can’t return early back to Taiwan without ruining their careers. The reputation of the place is terrible in Taiwan, and nobody there wants to come. It will be a disaster when the first wave of assignees all want to go home with no replacements wanting to come. Not sure how the company thinks they can hire more locals or promote enough to support Phase 2, forget Phase 3. People are leaving faster than they can be hired, making more work for the poor people left here.

I had no problem working hard, but with no chance of change, all the role model managers leaving gave me the obvious clarity of what I needed to do for health, life, and sanity!

If you are willing to work and work and work and do whatever you are told and do whatever it takes under high pressure with no tradeoffs, this is the place rich in opportunity!

YO, wake up! Your leadership needs to change and hire some reasonable, trusted, and respected senior managers. Learn to listen to your employees and do the right thing with trade-offs, sensitivity, humility, and care for your employees.