Night concierge job in Granada: 850 euros after gas costs

1,100 euros, seven nights a week, and 250 euros in gasoline

He closes the pool at 10:30 p.m., goes down to the garage, and locks the keys. Then, he closes the doors of each building block, one by one. He has almost four hours of guard left in an urbanization with hundreds of apartments, attending to neighbors without water, without keys, or with a leak in the apartment above. Five hours a night, seven days a week, two days off per month, and 30 kilometers by car home. The salary: 1,100 euros. The position, in the Granada area, remains unfilled.

The worker who was offered the job rejected it. And the episode has served to map out the wage floor in an area where business discourse repeats that it cannot find people and that no one wants to work. The calculation that circulates in the discussion, with the car already deducted, leaves the real salary at around 5 euros per hour.

From 1,100 to 850: what the commute eats up

The 30 kilometers of distance is the first hole. It is 60 per day, 1,800 per month if working daily and around 22,000 kilometers per year. With the liter at 1.6 euros and a consumption of 9 liters per 100 kilometers, the monthly fuel bill goes over 250 euros. The vehicle in question is a Jeep, not friendly to cheap pumps. Adding insurance, maintenance, tires, and vehicle inspection, some calculations raise the real cost of the car to around 500 euros per month: more than half of the available salary. None of those items are paid by the company.

The result is an effective salary of 850 euros, or less, for a position that requires nocturnal presence almost every day of the calendar. The distance is not the employer's problem, certainly. But it is also not a neutral detail when the candidate does not live in the urbanization and the salary does not allow moving next door.

Is it legal to work seven days a week with two days off per month?

As some participants point out, it does not fit with the ordinary weekly rest regime: the special shifts that the regulation allows would not reach that extreme, and the described calendar—two days off per month—would fall outside what the law admits as an ordinary shift.

Added to that is the night work. According to what is argued in the debate, night hours are not counted the same as daytime hours and must be compensated with additional free time or money; the same would apply to holidays and permanent availability, which in other markets is paid and here is given away. The applicable collective agreement would set for that schedule, and with the corresponding rest, a minimum of 1,500 euros, according to the calculation that circulates in the discussion. The offer falls 400 short before counting the commute.

Closing garages, attending to neighbors, and the rounds that cannot be done

The position is sold as concierge, but the list of tasks is that of three trades: doorman, cleaner, and guard. Closing pools and garages, resolving four or five incidents each night, notifying those who stay past midnight, and answering for what happens in the premises. After that comes the lesser-known legal detail: according to the cited rulings, a doorman or concierge cannot assume security rounds, as these functions are a matter of private security and the legal framework reserves them to authorized personnel. The infringement is punished with a fine of 6,001 euros, classified as very serious by article 58.1.a of the Private Security Law.

Some warn, moreover, that falling asleep in the guard booth is not free if something happens later: liability for abandonment of duties falls on whoever was supposed to be awake. Paying 1,100 euros for a figure that assumes patrimonial and legal risk is the heart of the problem.

The bargain no one wants to take

One part of the analysis holds that, for someone who lives in the urbanization itself, this is a bargain: five hours in a chair, a movie on the tablet, the phone, and sleep. The comparison put on the table is that of industrial employment in the province: warehouses with shifts of 9 to 11 hours, Saturdays included, for 1,300 euros, or waiters with 14 hours for 800. In contrast, sitting down does not seem so bad.

The objection is twofold. First, that the bargain only exists if the 60 daily kilometers disappear. Second, that much of the appeal relies on the position being free of tasks, when the position comes with duties of doorman, cleaner, and guard. The driest response from the other side is the usual one: that he study, that he train, or that he take a civil service exam.

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The worker ended up at another company: double his salary, 19 minutes from home, and two days off per week. The night concierge position remains open. And there remains one last staggering figure: the total cost to the company, including contributions and charges, would be around 1,900 euros per month for a position that the employee sees as 1,100 and that, after the car, drops to 850.