Diedra Cavina has an unusual birthday gift lined up. Like many others, she is resigning from her job with no real back-up plan in place. “Maybe it’s a dumb decision, but I don’t see any other way,” the 28-year-old graphic designer revealed. “There’s no point in carrying on there. I had to get out for my own sanity.”

She would have resigned either way, but one thing made her step to the exit door that much lighter: receiving the religious holiday bonus (THR). A fixture in the Indonesian labor market, the THR is provided annually to all employees on the eve of Idul Fitri.

According to a recent ruling by Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry, anyone who has been employed for a year or over is entitled to a bonus equivalent to a month’s wage; while those who have joined a company for less than a year will be given a prorated bonus based on how many months they have been employed. 

It is a practice inexorably tied to the nation’s annual tradition of mudik, or the exodus of millions of migrants from big urban centers back to their rural hometowns across the archipelago over the holidays.

On paper, the THR is a scheme to reward workers’ loyalty and bolster their coffers before the inevitable exodus. In real life, though, it has sparked a long-term phenomenon that is an open secret among headhunters, employers and recruiters in the country: that many employees will simply tender their resignation just before Idul Fitri, take the bonus home then move on to another employer.

Some have dubbed this a form of exodus in its own right, while others ruefully compare it to the “transfer window” in soccer, where players move from one soccer club to another. But dig a little deeper, and one will notice that this dubious tradition was born out of lax labor laws, pitiful working conditions and a nationwide sense of ennui.

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