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13. 04. 12. - 08:00

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13. 04. 12. - 08:00

Busy Doing Nothing

Kathryn Quinn

A retiring Town Hall engineer is counting the cost of sending one last email before he quit boasting of earning nearly 750,000 GBP for a career of "doing nothing."

The 65-year-old civil servant told how he's clocked up more than 53,000 GBP-a-year in the past 14 years in a surveying office in Menden, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany for "being present but not there."

The engineer - who has not been named - boasted how more than a decade of desk shuffling, work dodging and chair polishing had left ready to retire.

"I am entering retirement fully prepared," he wrote

His note was sent to 500 colleagues but backfired when it soon emerged in local media after disgruntled former workmates apparently leaked it.

And when he was tracked down, the engineer would only say: "That email was not intended for public view. I do not wish to say anything else."

Now local mayor has promised an inquiry into the boast.

"This kind of behaviour is very telling," he said.

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