Let’s face it, all of us have attempted to prolong our vacation time by coming up with more inventive justifications than a four-year-old on why they coloured the dog blue. The justifications vary from an adverse case of jet lag to our goldfish experiencing an existential dilemma only we can fix. Even though we are aware that our supervisor can actually see right through these arguments, we nonetheless work really hard to obtain a few more delightful days of freedom. However, in all honesty, how far can you push it? For one Spanish civil servant, it was six years.
The absence of a Spanish civil servant from work for six years came to light in 2010 when he was supposed to receive a long-service award. According to the Times, in 1990, Joaquin Garcia began working for a municipal water firm in Cadiz.
Despite not showing up for work since 2004, he was nonetheless paid €37,000 (more than Rs 33 lakh) annually. When Garcia was supposed to receive a commemorative plaque for 20 years of service, Jorge Blas Fernandez, the deputy mayor of Cadiz inquired where he was.
“I wondered whether he was still working there, had he retired, had he died? But the payroll showed he was still receiving a salary,” Fernandez told Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
Once he had confirmed with another worker that Garcia had not been seen in the office for several years, Fernandez reached out to him to find out more details. “I asked him: what are you doing? What did you do yesterday? And the previous month? He could not answer,” Fernandez added.
Speaking on Garcia’s behalf, his lawyer allegedly laid the blame for his absence on bullying at work. In addition, he stated that there was nothing to do.
Garcia’s close associates informed El Mundo that he chose to focus on reading philosophy instead of reporting the bullying because he was afraid of losing his job. Ultimately, a court decided in favour of the government and it mandated that he pay the fine.
According to the BBC, Garcia received the maximum penalty of €27,000 (almost Rs 25 lakh) for his prolonged vacation.
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