Intel brings back workers’ free coffee, seeking to stem morale decline

I'm still wondering how this happened during an alleged chip shortage.

Afaik (hopefully somebody in the semiconductor can correct me) is two reasons:

1) Most of the shortages were simple, non-state-of-the-art chips used in stuff like cars, coffee makers, etc.

2) Companies without their own fabs bid on capacity from the companies with fabs. Reduced supply + high demand = only the top dogs could afford high enough bids for fabs to prioritize their supply.
 
They have about 125,000 employees. That works out to about $3.00 per day (weekdays only) per employee.
That's a lot. They supply Kona? I drink 3 cups upscale coffee a day. That comes to $.86 per day. I bet the sludge they supply costs at least half as much. At Dell we had to pay for it out of a vending machine.
 
Afaik (hopefully somebody in the semiconductor can correct me) is two reasons:

1) Most of the shortages were simple, non-state-of-the-art chips used in stuff like cars, coffee makers, etc.

2) Companies without their own fabs bid on capacity from the companies with fabs. Reduced supply + high demand = only the top dogs could afford high enough bids for fabs to prioritize their supply.
I dislike thinking that the parts that go into cars is "simple" and "not state of the art" but the ones I am aware of are indeed not fabricated on the lines using the smallest lithography (voltages too high). Thing is, all wafers start as blank slates, and then are built up (ion implantation, metal sputtering, whatever). Different processes for making different technologies. But all with the same common root. And if you can't get those blank wafers, then everyone suffers.

Most companies are fabless now. Very big money to keep up, to explore the next technology, to expand.

Not sure if the wafers cost more and if there was a bidding war--probably was. But I have to think, during the shortage, most of these wafers were likely under contract. Pre-sold, will be bought on date ____. Hot lots get negotiated, bought, not sure how that works, maybe the fab acts like a brokerage and sells unwanted wafers (company abc realizes they have too much inventory, sells back the wafers they bought for next month or year) to the highest bidder?

Give work from home back.
That's the biggest morale booster.
It'd boost my work output for sure. We were lousing about it the other day, and I simply spread my arms out, said yep, this is what happens when we have to be in-office. Morale might be helped, but I can see why people feel disconnected and less loyalty, hard to build necessary peer to peer relationships in jobs where collaboration is required.
 
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I dislike thinking that the parts that go into cars is "simple" and "not state of the art" but the ones I am aware of are indeed not fabricated on the lines using the smallest lithography (voltages too high). Thing is, all wafers start as blank slates, and then are built up (ion implantation, metal sputtering, whatever). Different processes for making different technologies. But all with the same common root. And if you can't get those blank wafers, then everyone suffers.

Most companies are fabless now. Very big money to keep up, to explore the next technology, to expand.

Not sure if the wafers cost more and if there was a bidding war--probably was. But I have to think, during the shortage, most of these wafers were likely under contract. Pre-sold, will be bought on date ____. Hot lots get negotiated, bought, not sure how that works, maybe the fab acts like a brokerage and sells unwanted wafers (company abc realizes they have too much inventory, sells back the wafers they bought for next month or year) to the highest bidder?


It'd boost my work output for sure. We were lousing about it the other day, and I simply spread my arms out, said yep, this is what happens when we have to be in-office. Morale might be helped, but I can see why people feel disconnected and less loyalty, hard to build necessary peer to peer relationships in jobs where collaboration is required.

Yea maybe state-of-the-art is the wrong term. I almost want to say simple, which is still the wrong term but "simple" when compared to high-demand, high-priced stuff like GPUs and ARM.

I do remember bidding matches going on between arm, apple, Intel, and Nvidia though.
 
Yea maybe state-of-the-art is the wrong term. I almost want to say simple, which is still the wrong term but "simple" when compared to high-demand, high-priced stuff like GPUs and ARM.

I do remember bidding matches going on between arm, apple, Intel, and Nvidia though.
Yeah, there's definitely complexity due to sheer scale. I stay on the test side and that's complex enough for me--but I remember one part that has dual ADC's in it--but only 2 pins coming out to the outside world. Lots going on inside that chip.

Who knows what goes on for wafers, bidding and contracts. Just like everything else, it's not so bad when everything is stable. When something happens, all bets off.
 
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What kind of office job doesn't provide coffee? Genuinely didn't know that was a thing.
I work for a pretty decent sized company. We used to have big coffee pots like what they have at a diner, after a remodel they switched to commercial Keurig machines. Just gotta bring your own K-Cups. The cheap coffee in the old machines was junk anyways.

But I brought in a drip coffee maker for my team anyways.
 
It sounds so tone deaf....free coffee? My place has zero benefits and we have free coffee.

Go to the other extreme, free catered gourmet lunches and owners who walk around giving out $1,000 on a whim (this is my buddy's office). And guess what? None of them are happy.

Seems the only thing that makes people happy nowadays is being able to shop at Costco on co. time. (I'm being facetious, maybe healthcare and time off that people can actually use [I have a very har d time taking 5 weeks off and so does everyone I work with--our culture is to forfeit time off because we can't use it all]). And, we have a strict 80% in-office requirement that PTO cannot make up for due to the calculation.:ROFLMAO:
 
I have been a technology manager before but I'm shifted back into a technical role now, my decision because I love it.

When I was a manager though, I used to pay for the coffee because it very clearly made my employees more eager in the morning. :D
 
...Go to the other extreme, free catered gourmet lunches and owners who walk around giving out $1,000 on a whim (this is my buddy's office). And guess what? None of them are happy...
Funny you should mention that. Last time I was interviewing I was at a somewhat large consulting firm that dealt with employee benefits and one of the perks mentioned was free food available almost continuously - breakfast and lunch, snack carts in-between, and a sort of light dinner service was also available. I have to give credit to the person interviewing me in that he mentioned that this basically removes the excuse of having to leave the building to eat. I didn't get the impression that people there were happy either.
 
Funny you should mention that. Last time I was interviewing I was at a somewhat large consulting firm that dealt with employee benefits and one of the perks mentioned was free food available almost continuously - breakfast and lunch, snack carts in-between, and a sort of light dinner service was also available. I have to give credit to the person interviewing me in that he mentioned that this basically removes the excuse of having to leave the building to eat. I didn't get the impression that people there were happy either.
I don’t know the culture but my buddy routinely brings his lunch home. Dunno if that’s tacky in any way etc. he said people all earn good salaries (he’s a DBA) yet the climate is caustic. Get on an elevator and no one says hello nor good morning. It’s a financial co that does analyses…I once interviewed because the commute would be a joke as close to home
 
I'm not sure why it's "alleged". Wafers were hard to come by due to the pandemic.

As to why Intel may have fallen behind (before, during or after the pandemic), no idea, don't work there and don't follow them. Easy for me to believe that's straight up incompetent management, that's usually the problem, if not always. Failure to adapt when the market changes, or the typical mis-steps if the market is good (but one gets undercut by the competition).
It was management, for sure. Like the decision to *not* get into chips for phones back before everyone had 1 (or 3) and replaced them every couple of years. They were a great place to work from a compensation perspective back in the late 90s and early 2000s, but not so much since then.
 
in addition, at least provide real half and half, and maybe specialty lactose free creamers for those who need it!
This is why free stuff gets taken away. They give you something free and then everyone complains about this and that; so they take it away. It's not BK, you can't ALWAYS have it your way!
 
Afaik (hopefully somebody in the semiconductor can correct me) is two reasons:

1) Most of the shortages were simple, non-state-of-the-art chips used in stuff like cars, coffee makers, etc.

2) Companies without their own fabs bid on capacity from the companies with fabs. Reduced supply + high demand = only the top dogs could afford high enough bids for fabs to prioritize their supply.

CPUs are sexy, but the workhorse chips that quietly serve to provide basic functions aren't built using the most advanced processes.

Even in a computer, or device, they couldn't function without the chips that provide networking, including wi-fi and cellular, from companies like Broadcom and Qualcomm, well "loved" companies in their own right for their business practices.

Recall that the Sendai earthquake in Japan knocked out the Renesys plant, and caused headaches for the OEMs that relied on the chips it produced.

It takes a lot of commitment and investment to produce chips, and like many businesses, once they establish their stronghold, they may resort to questionable means to secure it.

Intel leaned on that for years, as part of the Wintel hegemony, and got too used to being able to rest on its laurels. That bill is now coming due.

Even within tech, Intel is an old school company, which works for and against it. Perks are being cut back everywhere, but the fact that coffee is thought of as some sort of prize for its employees speaks loudly as to where they stand.
 
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CPUs are sexy, but the workhorse chips that quietly serve to provide basic functions aren't built using the most advanced processes.

Even in a computer, or device, they couldn't function without the chips that provide networking, including wi-fi and cellular, from companies like Broadcom and Qualcomm, well "loved" companies in their own right for their business practices.

Recall that the Sendai earthquake in Japan knocked out the Renesys plant, and caused headaches for the OEMs that relied on the chips it produced.

It takes a lot of commitment and investment to produce chips, and like many businesses, once they establish their stronghold, they may resort to questionable means to secure it.

Intel leaned on that for years, as part of the Wintel hegemony, and got too used to being able to rest on its laurels. That bill is now coming due.

Even within tech, Intel is an old school company, which works for and against it. Perks are being cut back everywhere, but the fact that coffee is thought of as some sort of prize for its employees speaks loudly as to where they stand.

This past week I was exposed to “AGV’s.”

They malfunctioned and stopped doing their jobs. We were on a meeting with the vendor who was trying to figure out what was wrong. We were on the software/user interface side. Can’t imagine the chipset needed at the robot side.
 
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