Ms. Pham Thi Ngoc (30 years old) - an electronic component assembly worker at Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen Company Limited said that on the evening of December 25, she rode a motorbike back home to celebrate Tet with her family.
“My company's Tet holiday is from December 26th, so on the 25th, I packed my things and brought them to the company. After finishing work in the afternoon, I rode my motorbike back home,” said Ms. Ngoc.
Although she left early, according to Ms. Ngoc, the journey back to her hometown in Nam Dinh seemed longer because of the large number of people traveling, taking 4.5 hours to get home while it usually only takes about 3.5 hours. Returning to her hometown and meeting her parents and children has been a long-standing wish of Ms. Ngoc.
“During Tet, every day I go to work, I wish time would pass quickly so I can return home to be with my family. When I get home and see my parents and children, even though the journey is long and tiring and cold, it all quickly disappears,” Ngoc shared.
Returning home late at night, the next morning she started helping her parents clean the house. Ms. Ngoc shared that although the house is not too big, only one floor with 3 rooms, it still took almost a day to clean because the number of people was limited.
On December 27, the female worker decided to go into the kitchen to make coconut jam and dried pork to eat and entertain guests during Tet. On the 28th of Tet, Ms. Ngoc will take her children to buy new clothes, conveniently buy her parents a few sets of clothes, some home decorations and Tet food.
Sharing about the Tet bonus, Ms. Ngoc received a bonus of 6.9 million VND, equivalent to 1 month of basic salary. Combined with the January salary she had received before, Ms. Ngoc had to limit her spending to save for Tet to buy things for her family.
When asked about her job, the female worker said that in 2024, her job was quite stable, without any difficulties or salary or working hour reductions. In 2025, Ms. Ngoc shared that she still wanted to stay with the company she was working for even though she had to be far from her hometown and children.
Because if you go back to your hometown, the salary will be quite low and the benefits will not be as good.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Cham (41 years old) - a construction worker working in Hanoi returned to her hometown in Nam Dinh on the 25th of Tet.
“On the morning of the 25th of Tet, my husband and I started to return to our hometown. Although the roads were more crowded than usual, the journey was still quite smooth and safe,” said Ms. Cham.
“Going back to my hometown to see my friends and children, eating rice and wrapping pork rolls together is as fun as the first day of Tet. There is no more hardship or fatigue from work,” said Ms. Cham.
On the 28th of Tet, Ms. Cham started cleaning the house and wrapping banh chung. On the 29th of Tet, Ms. Cham and her husband continued to prepare a New Year's Eve meal, inviting their children, siblings, and close friends to enjoy the joy of reunion.
Discussing work in 2024, Ms. Cham said that her husband received quite a lot of projects, so he could only arrange to return to his hometown once a month for 1 to 2 days before having to go back to Hanoi to work. The work was favorable, so Ms. Cham and her husband's annual income was quite satisfactory.
Talking about the Tet bonus, Ms. Cham shared that at the end of the year, although the project had not been completed, the homeowner still gave her a bonus of 5 million VND. Divided equally among the 7 people in the group, each person received more than 700,000 VND. Although not high, Ms. Cham said she was still comforted because when choosing this profession, she knew there would be no Tet bonus.
On the 9th day of Tet, she and her husband continued to go to Hanoi to work. Ms. Cham hopes that in the new year her husband will receive more projects and be safe at work.
If health permits, Ms. Cham and her husband plan to work for about 5 more years, save enough capital, then return to their hometown to do light work and live happily with their children and grandchildren.
