The Only Way to Work
This is the story of a modern-day picaresque hero. It's only fitting that it takes place in Spain. After all, this is the country where the picaresque novel originated. The story takes place in Cádiz, down in the warm south, where life is lived slowly and leisurely.
In the year 1998 the city hall of Cádiz signed an agreement with the public water company Aguas de Cádiz, in which a city employee would take over a certain job. The worker in question was placed in that office with that responsibility. His paycheck was still coming from the city coffers. From 2004 to 2010 apparently he decided his time was better spent elsewhere. People would sometimes ask about him, but no one knew where he was. At the company they thought he had gone back to City Hall. In City Hall they thought he was still at the public water company. He was really at home, which happened to be down the street and around the corner from the office where he was supposed to be working. Eventually, when enough people asked and looked, he was found out. And suspended from his job without pay. After about four months, he applied for early retirement and left the suspension behind him.
However, he was taken to court. There was little the judge could do under current law. So he has just been sentenced to returning almost thirty thousand euros, a year's salary that he earned at home. The Spanish tradition of the picaresque remains alive and kicking.
In the year 1998 the city hall of Cádiz signed an agreement with the public water company Aguas de Cádiz, in which a city employee would take over a certain job. The worker in question was placed in that office with that responsibility. His paycheck was still coming from the city coffers. From 2004 to 2010 apparently he decided his time was better spent elsewhere. People would sometimes ask about him, but no one knew where he was. At the company they thought he had gone back to City Hall. In City Hall they thought he was still at the public water company. He was really at home, which happened to be down the street and around the corner from the office where he was supposed to be working. Eventually, when enough people asked and looked, he was found out. And suspended from his job without pay. After about four months, he applied for early retirement and left the suspension behind him.
However, he was taken to court. There was little the judge could do under current law. So he has just been sentenced to returning almost thirty thousand euros, a year's salary that he earned at home. The Spanish tradition of the picaresque remains alive and kicking.
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