Man who skipped work for six years was only caught out when he was set to win award

He took quietly quitting to a new level!

Joaquín García from Spain stopped going to work as he claimed he had no work to do and felt 'bullied'.

The 69-year-old was due to receive an award for long service on his 20th anniversary with the company when the noticed his absence.

Mr García, dubbed 'el funcionario fantasma' meaning the phantom official, was still receiving his entire €37,000 (£31,122) salary thanks to a mix-up between the two departments he was working for. 

He was employed as an engineer assigned to oversee a wastewater treatment plant in the city of Cadiz. 

Garcia, who is now retired believed he was being bullied at work for his family's politics and was cast away to the plant but when he arrived, he found there was no work to be done. 

Instead of complaining, which he feared would hinder him from finding another job, García 'quietly quit' and simply stopped turning up to work. 

The water board believed García was the responsibility of the city council, who thought he was working for the water board. 

His absence went unnoticed for six years until he was due to receive a medal for 20 years of service.  

Deputy mayor Jorge Blas Fernández, who hired García, was tasked with tracking him down after a colleague, who had an office opposite García's desk, said that he had not seen him for several years.  

Blas Fernandez told El Mundo: "I wondered whether he was still working there, had he retired, had he died? But the payroll showed he was still receiving a salary.

"I called him up and asked, 'What did you do yesterday? The month before? The month before that?' He didn't know what to say."

Garcia was taken to court by the company and was ordered to pay £21,000 - the equivalent of one year of his annual salary after tax.

García pleaded his case citing supposed instances of bullying and claiming he had turned up to the office but admittedly didn't show up during regular business hours each day. 

The court found the engineer hadn't occupied his office for 'at least six years' and did 'absolutely no work' for the three years before his retirement. 

His story went viral and divided the internet over who was actually at fault. Others admitted to pulling similar stunts.

One person wrote: "If he can get paid for doing nothing for six years, clearly someone else isn't doing his/her job either."

While a second said: "That says as much about the job as it does about him."