Skip one day at office without informing your boss and you know what the consequences will be like. But this Spanish civil servant managed to not show up to work for six years and, surprisingly, no one even noticed.
Not only that, he was still getting his monthly salary!
And the mother of all ironies is that the supervisors only became aware of his long absence when the man, Joaquin Garcia, 69, became eligible for an award based on his 20 years of long service, according to the BBC.
After this startling discovery, García was fined €27,000 ($30,000), which is the equivalent after tax on his annual salary. It was determined that he did not occupy his office for “at least six years” and did “absolutely no work” from 2007 to 2010.
He had been sent by the city council to oversee the building of a waste-water treatment plant in a southwestern city but records show that Mr García had not turned up for work since 2004, according to a Telegraph report.
However, Mr García claims that he had occasionally visited his office but there was nothing for him to do. He iterated that he was the victim of workplace bullying due to disagreements between the council and the water company, so he spent his time in reading philosophy.
Garcia has also written to the mayor and requested that his fine be dismissed. He is now seeking a review of the court’s ruling.
(Feature Image Source: Reuters)