Samsung is desperate to compete on chips. Workers say it comes at a cost.
Samsung is desperate to compete on chips. Workers say it comes at a cost.
Scarred by long hours, low pay, and a hostile work culture, many chip workers are leaving for competitors, including American companies.
Scarred by long hours, low pay, and a hostile work culture, many chip workers are leaving for competitors, including American companies.
- Once a global leader, Samsung Electronics is losing in the fierce semiconductor race to dominate AI supplies.
- It’s also losing engineers, leaving the remaining staff to work long, intense shifts to compensate for vacancies.
- Engineers say they are required to falsify data and defects are slipping through, affecting chip quality.
Leaving for a rival was once taboo, but now, “openly applying to SK Hynix has become our culture,” Cho, a process engineer, told Rest of World.
Even his manager has encouraged his team to jump ship, Cho said. “‘Why aren’t you applying to SK Hynix?’” he recalled the manager saying. “‘Get out of here fast!’”
“All the talented engineers are leaving,” he said. “That’s how we’re falling behind.”Engineers are asked to log overtime as “nonworking” hours so that Samsung doesn’t violate the government’s 52-hour workweek limit, Han and five others said. “I work many hours for free,” Han said.
Wanting to compete by driving away engineers feels like competing with Boeing to dig deeper
thier phone chips hasnt been exactly stellar as of late,.