A Spanish civil servant, Joaquín García, managed to avoid work for at least six years—possibly up to 14—while still receiving his salary.
According to The Guardian, his prolonged absence came to light only when he was due to receive an award for long and dedicated service to the municipality of Cádiz in 2010.
García, a 69-year-old engineer, had been working for the local authority since 1990. In 1996, he was assigned to the municipal water board, Agua de Cádiz, where he was responsible for supervising a wastewater treatment plant, El Mundo reported.
However, it turned out that he had stopped appearing at the office for several years.
The discovery was made when Jorge Blas Fernández, the deputy mayor of Cádiz, questioned García’s whereabouts while reviewing the award recipients.
“He was still on the payroll,” Fernández later told El Mundo. “I thought, where is this man? Has he retired? Has he died?” Upon inquiring, Fernández learned from the former manager of the water board that no one had seen him for years.
When García was finally called in for questioning, he was unable to provide a clear account of his daily work. He struggled to explain what he had done in recent months or even years.
Following an investigation, the court found that García had done “absolutely no work” between 2007 and 2010, leading to a fine of €27,000 (approx. Rs.24.5 lakh), equivalent to one year’s salary after taxes.
While García maintained that he did report to work, he admitted that he may not have followed regular office hours.
In his defence, García also claimed he was a victim of workplace bullying due to his family’s socialist political leanings. Fearing for his livelihood and needing to support his family, he did not report the alleged mistreatment.
His friends also stated that he had become deeply depressed and even sought psychiatric help during this period.
The bizarre situation arose from a bureaucratic mix-up. The city council thought he was stationed at the water board, while the water board believed he was under the council’s direct oversight.
The result was that no one monitored his work, allowing him to vanish from his duties undetected.
Despite his prolonged absence, García seemingly made good use of his time. He became an avid reader and immersed himself in philosophy, developing an expertise in the works of the Dutch thinker Baruch Spinoza, a key figure in the Enlightenment, which was an intellectual and philosophical movement that took place in Europe from the late 17th century to the early 19th century.
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