To refuse to provide bank statement to my work to prove I was in the office

[HanExplorer]

I’ve found myself in a very unusual situation and am standing firm so far despite pressure.

I work in a hybrid role with a requirement to attend our office twice a week, this is measured monthly based on card swipe data. On one of the days in May, I forgot my pass so was issued a temporary one to use that day.

Earlier this month my manager flagged I was showing a day short for office attendance in May and said I’d need to make up a further day in June. I looked at the dates they had on record and quickly realised the missing one was when I had the temporary pass so that obviously hadn’t registered on the system.

I explained this to my manager and she still maintained I’d need to attend an extra day to balance the totals on the system as there ‘wasn’t any record of me attending’.

I realised I’d spent money in the on site restaurant that day and there’d be a record on my bank showing the company name. I screenshotted this on my phone, cropped it so you could see the date and sent it to my manager.

She has checked with her manager and told me that I need to provide a copy of a bank statement which shows my name and the transaction - that would of course also show all my other activity!!

This has been dragging on and I’m standing firm so far, but I’ve had a call booked in with my manager and her manager for tomorrow and I’m wary of what they are going to say.

My office is over an hours train journey each way so not a case of driving 5 minutes down the road to work a further day - regardless, I don’t feel I should do out of principle.

We have no idea if the company has no record in general or if they have no record of OP. That’s an important part.

There’s a big difference between what you’re assuming (that no record is taken at the time) and, for example, “we only hold records on who was issued a temporary pass for four weeks afterwards so whether or not OP was issued one has been deleted” (perfectly reasonable) or “we do hold a record but OP wasn’t on the record” (reasonably policy and potential human error).

Sounds like you have a very controlling employer and manager. I'd redact the other entries as already suggested to appease these pendants. I'd also be looking for a new employer.

I agree with this, and I must say in all of my (long) working life, I have never once worked for an organisation who issued temporary passes without recording them and people being signed in and out of the building. I find it almost unbelievable tbh.

If this is indeed happening it is very, very poor indeed , and I would absolutely be raising this as an urgent H&S concern for many reasons (fire, security, lone working to name just a few), which I would expect to be taken very, very seriously indeed.

However, if there is a system, but for some reason it just happened to fail leaving no trace of OPs attendence on the day she happened to forget her pass, not interact with any colleagues, not be in any meetings, not connect to the office IT network, not be seen by any colleagues etc, then it does raise some questions, doesn't it?

But luckily OP can easily prove her attendence by providing full details (including location and date of transaction) for her purchase in the staff restaurant. Yet she declines to...

This is what I also was expecting. That you can click through to the transaction, with the long transaction reference, which doesn’t show the balance.

Either redact it on screen or print it, redact with a pen, and scan it back in.

OP has stated that the company has no record.

"I have asked re. a record of my temporary pass and been told no record is kept - I have my employer number and they viewed my photo on the system to verify and handed the pass over without recording anything."

That's huge safeguarding and security issue.

This?

Either print it and redact it with pen and physically hand it to them, so there's no cyber copy. Or print it, redact it and scan/send it via email using your company email system which presumably has a decent level of security?

Or print a physical copy and give it to someone to view in person and ask for it back. Literally noone in HR will care what you've spent your money on. Even if it is £1000 a week at DildosRUs.

I agree with this analysis. Quite honestly you might want to make a 'point' but you are not coming off well in this.

The trust issue with you and your company does need to be addressed though. Just send over proof and move on (maybe literally - you could start looking for another job!).

I would agree if it wasn't OP who originally offered proof she was there with a screenshot of her card transaction.

Her work has basically said that's perfect but we do need the actual statement with your name.

If OP was happy to provide the screenshot of her card transaction, I don't understand why she is unhappy to provide a redacted statement.

OP, just print out a copy of your bank statement and take a sharpie and mark out other transactions, then hand over. It’s quite simple really.

Yes, this.
If you have evidence provide it, by printing it out, but no way would I show an unredacted statement to my colleagues, it's a joint account for one thing, so it would have DP purchases, and possibly wages in, on that page.
I would push back, and insist that HR asks the department who give out temporary passes to help you.
What if this happens again to a colleague who brings lunch in and doesn't buy anything from the cafe, and forgets their pass on the day?
It sounds as though they are punishing you for forgetting your pass, and can't be bothered to get the temporary pass details, as it is easier to just make you come in another day.

You say your office is over an hour by train, so surely you would have your train tickets for that day?
Seems easier than bank statements.

My company definitely gives out temporary passes, without recording it properly. Ive seen it happen several times.

Omg, so they are insisting on you being in the office even though your meetings are online. Truely bonkers and I echo PPs suggestions to look for another job.

Could your manager provide security with a photo of you and simply ask them to verify that they have seen you on the CCTV on that date?

I am more and more on your side the more I read. You have told them you were in and explained what happened. You have also kindly shown them that you made a purchase that day that puts you at the location. They don’t have any record of the temporary ID assigned to you (in which case this system needs reviewing because either it happens so infrequently the person issuing the card should remember you OR this happens all the time so lots of people are being asked to prove they were in the office that day so it isn’t an effective system); they refuse to share the CCTV with your line manager proving you were there; they are demanding you provide them with a private bank statement to prove it’s your transaction (even if you comply, what will they do with that evidence to ensure it remains secure?) and they’re insisting you do an extra day in the office because their records aren’t accurate.

I guess it depends on how much you want this job! Because if you stand your ground, you might find your card marked…. Solutions I can think of if you want to keep your job and not ruffle more feathers:

1. print a copy of your statement and manually redact it
2. ask them to give your photo to security to verify your presence that day
3. show then your train ticket from that day
4. ask the colleague you had a call with to vouch you were in the office
5. ask IT if they can show your laptop/phone was connected to the office wifi
6. look at location history to see if there’s anything saved to prove where you were
7. see if you have any texts or emails sent that day that refer to the fact you were in the office (eg did you send a message saying you were on the train on your way to the office and would call at x time when you arrived).
8. try to remember anyone else in the office that day that would remember seeing you

I really don’t understand why they are being so belligerent about this?!

They should at the very least have a physical signing-in book that can easily verify if someone used a pass. You can’t get the pass (which should be numbered) without signing it (and logging pass number).

I think it's ridiculous you have to be in the office so sit on your own with your headphones in. What's the point? I think your employer is being petty and ridiculous. I have no issues with having to go in the office but to be this petty, to make people make up days they may have missed is beyond ridiculous.

Can’t you just print it, and you can buy the special pens to redact it.

But she’s a high performer. There has never (we assume) been any reason to doubt their honesty before nor does there seem to be any performance issues. If my manager asked me where I was and I explained that, they would have gone ok no problem.

the fact is if she hadn’t made a purchase at all then there would be zero proof the Op could provide . If is for the work to prove she wasn’t at the office not on her to prove she was. ( I believe she was there otherwise this is a weird thread and she has the proof she paid for something I then canteen). There is no way if this went to tribunal the burden would be on the OP to prove she was there rather than the employer to prove she wasn’t. Innocent until proven guilty. I am confused why this is a hill they want to die on. The manager should be checking CcTV if they are that desperate to know or they should be speaking to security about the temp pass situation and why it wasn’t recorded.

I honestly would not stay working anywhere that treated me like this. They would lose a good worker and have the expense of rehiring someone else- all for what?

Oh ffs unless you work in Mi5 they are fool proof enough for the purposes you need them for -.your bosses aren't going to be paying the significant amount needed to have them forensically investigated.

If you react using pdf editor then save it again as a completely different file it is incredibly difficult (possibly impossible) to undo the redaction.

Your boss is being pedantic to ask this of you but you are being completely unreasonable by dragging it out and not doing any of the very easy things to prove you were there - sending your statement or just asking the colleague who saw you there, or the staff member who allocated you the pass. Do you want to make a reputation for yourself for something so minor?

Jesus Christ OP, find another job, there’s no trust here and they sound toxic.

Exactly - her work should be thanking her for inadvertently exposing a massive flaw in their security!

I can honestly believe this happened. At my last work if you forget your pass the security person just buzzes you in as they know you!

Gotta second this.

The level of intrusion, for a single day, is scandalous. If you can, vote with your feet and take your skills elsewhere. I would not dream of tracking and tracing the members of my team this way 🤬

I doubt you could tell where work was done from, with our systems it doesn't matter whether we are in the office or at home it all appears the same.

I guess maybe IT could tell where we had logged in from, if that's an option?

What a hideous place to work that doesn't trust employees and treats them like school children!