On December 10th, the topic labeled as “Spanish female employee fired for consistently arriving early” surged into the top five hot searches on Weibo, causing a great deal of envy among netizens who suggested implementing this nationwide.
According to a report by the Chengdu Media Group’s Chengdu Business Daily on December 10th, a female employee from Spain was terminated recently for repeatedly arriving at work early, which was deemed as “serious misconduct”.
The 22-year-old woman worked at a courier company with an official start time of 7:30 am. Since 2023, she had been reminded multiple times not to arrive at the company between 6:45 am and 7:00 am. The company clearly informed her that clocking in or starting work before the official start time was not allowed, yet she insisted on arriving at the office before daybreak.
Her “overly enthusiastic” behavior made her supervisor uneasy. A fellow employee mentioned that her actions “disrupted team cooperation”. Eventually, her superior decided to terminate her for “serious misconduct”, stating that her continual early arrivals not only did not contribute effectively but also disregarded instructions. The woman subsequently appealed the dismissal to the Social Court of Alicante, claiming that the termination was unfair.
The defense materials submitted by the employer revealed that the woman had disregarded multiple verbal and written warnings from her superiors, and had then arrived early at the company 19 times in a row, even attempting to log in through the company’s application system before the rest of the staff had even arrived at the office.
In its ruling, the court stated that the issue was far from being simply “over-punctuality”. She repeatedly ignored management instructions, refused to adhere to the stipulated work hours, disrupted the normal operation of the team, and violated the fundamental duty of loyalty in the employment relationship. She had even recorded her clock-out time after leaving the office premises, and had “clocked in” miles away from the company, severely breaching the attendance system. The termination was deemed legal and appropriate, and no compensation was required to be paid.
This news from Red Star News has sparked widespread attention on the internet.
Netizens expressed envy, with comments like, “It should be implemented nationwide.” “We only knew you could get fired for being late, now we know arriving early can also get you fired.” “If this happened domestically, the situation might be completely different. Most bosses here would love you to come early and leave late, treating the company as their home.” “In China, there are no rewards for arriving early at work, but being late even for a while results in deductions, and overtime at night is unpaid.” “When I used to work at 8 am, I arrived around 7 am.” “For us, with an 8:30 am start, arriving no later than 8 am is required.”
“Spanish companies are so good.” “A former colleague who studied and worked in Australia once stayed behind to work overtime while everyone else had left on a Friday, but she was caught by the boss and reprimanded on Monday.”
Some netizens also remarked, “This undermines the common interest of all workers.” “It’s affecting others.” “It might be immigrants from third-world countries, as the locals tend to be pretty understanding, only the immigrants want to earn more money.”