German public official resigns with email telling 500 co-workers he hasn’t done a day’s work in 14 years and earned £600,000 without lifting a finger

'Since 1998, I was present but not really there. So I'm going to be well prepared for retirement – Adieu,' he wrote.

A retiring German public servant has signed off from work by emailing his 500 fellow staff to tell them that he had not done anything for 14 years.

The 65-year-old's final words in the job were to crow over colleagues and say he had earned more than £600,000 without lifting a finger.

'Since 1998, I was present but not really there. So I'm going to be well prepared for retirement – Adieu,' he wrote.



But naively he did not think this would leave the office in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, but the e-mail was leaked to the press.

Lazy: The cheeky officer worker admitted he did not do any work for 14 years and earned £600,000 in the process (posed by model)

'I do not wish to say anything else,' he told his local paper when confronted on his Minden doorstep, 'That email was not intended for public view,' he added.



The unnamed man, who has worked as a surveyor since 1974 said the situation was all the council's fault because they employed two people to do one job and his colleague just did it all.

'Of course, I well benefited from the freedom that came by to me,' he said.

Anger: The 65-year-old worked in Minden, pictured, and the town's mayor has admitted he has raged over the e-mail

He added that the computers he was expected to use were useless.

But angry Mayor of Minden, Volker Fleige, has admitted to feeling a 'good dose of rage' when the e-mail was passed on to him.



The employee had not once complained about not having enough to do during his 38 years of employment, he said.

