I went through long multi-month periods of 12 hour workdays. We used to joke that we were only working half days. I know so many guys that should have been home having quality time with the wife and kids but instead were at work busting their ass after hours to keep up with outrageous product schedules in order to guarantee they kept their jobs and their managers/directors (who worked 8hr days) got the extra special bonuses only available to those exempts above staff engineer. Many guys ended up divorced, and/or had kids that didn't respect them because they weren't around during their formative years. Work-life balance was a common discussion but no one had any good solutions. I loved the work but management made the expected volume untenable if one wanted a balanced life. Unfortunately the semiconductor expertise made it very hard to find other, less demanding non-semiconductor related work that paid similar or better wages.
That really sucks, I've done the 10h/7d thing, and that just about damn near killed me - when I was a lot younger.
I'm not hearing good things about what Intel is asking for here, so it probably hasn't changed at all.
TSMC expects the same or more from their employees (and from an article I think you posted last month) TSMC was "shocked" that American fab workers don't want 12 hour days and so they have had a hard time finding employees and the fab start up schedules are way behind plan. Intel must expect similar in order to compete with TSMC. I've always said the semicondictor industry was one of the most highly managed industries in history. Virtually no deadweight. They have perfected methods to squeeze every ounce of productivity from their workforce.
I've been told that Intel expects a rolling 12 hour shift. Something like 3 on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off.
I'm not sure why anyone thinks this is better than 3 8-hour shifts. When the mills were running in Youngstown, they even had 3 swing shifts that were 4 hours off the main shifts so there was knowledgeable coverage 24/7.
12 hours in a day would be a killer. You'd be fighting your own mind at the end, and you'd basically have to go home, sleep, and do it again.
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