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.

While your employer is ridiculous in the way they identify if you have been in the office or not, you are also being ridiculous of rejecting every way to prove that you are. Why is your colleague not able to confirm you are in the office - surely this is the easiest way? You are making life for yourself unnecessarily difficult.

By the way, they can also check the IP data from your laptop to confirm if you have connected to the company WiFi.

The ridiculousness about transaction date versus clearing date being shown is that given what OP has explained about her working practise, the clearing date would be within what? 24 / 48 hours of transaction bank depending. So close enough to the disputed day to prove her version of events. Unless you want to argue that she went on on a different day to cover her tracks for something. In which case there would be a record of that because she would have used her normal pass. She hasn't said she's working for MI5 or engaging in espionage (well you wouldn't would you, if you were).

The canteen purchase proves her presence. Unless the canteen does Deliveroo on the side - which would then show her sandwich being delivered to a different place - because tracking etc. Just in case anyone else wanted to pretzel themselves into another ridiculous theory beyond this company has a culture of paranoia and mistrust, poor record keeping and apparent security failings, and potentially too much time on its hands.....

Just show them your statement. You are being unnecessarily difficult. It’s your own fault that you forgot your work pass.

It depends which hill you’re most keen to die on - not making up the day, or not providing your bank statement. You can’t have it both ways. Ultimately you forgot your pass so the original error is yours, although it’s a bit of a fuck up if the temporary pass didn’t register.

Christ.

is this stand-off worth it, OP? 🤔

I mean, really worth it? 😩

I wouldn’t do it. Not for me to prove I was there. It is for the manager to prove I wasn’t. The manager is being unnecessarily difficult by not contacting security to check the cameras which is absolutely the first thing thing they should have done.

Just blank out all of the other transactions and your balance etc

Download the statement. Blank out your other transactions. Print it. Scan it. Email it across.

They cannot undo what doesn’t exist at all.

sorry if that’s already been only read ops posts.

well it is for you to prove that you were there if you forgot your pass! Cameras can’t just be viewed Willy Nilly!

So their management layers are so inept that they can only judge if someone was in the office based on pass data and having made that dependency they fail to manage pass data? What would they have done if you hadn’t paid for food in the staff canteen?

If I were a high performer working for a layer above who can’t judge my worth on outcomes and who demands unnecessary private information I would be looking for a more competent employer. This kind of ineptness tends to be cultural.

Print out your paperless statement. Put card over the bits you want to redact and take a photo/scan it.

Security is also quite lacking at my company. There is a sign in book, but no one really uses it

I am not comfortable using systems to redact my statement (which is paperless), my DP works in a cyber type role and has told me these programs are not fool proof. Frankly, there’s enough of a ‘big brother’ culture in this country, worse since the pandemic and going along with this sort of nonsense plays right into it.

use a printout and a sharpie?
Also don't they have a record of signing in on the office computer?
Or A cctv of you going through the entrance on that day?
Don't they need to keep records of this for fire safety reasons?

Bet your office has CCTV. Ask for the footage under a GDPR SAR request.

Would the security office know what temporary pass number you had on that day? At one place I worked, I took my car to the garage for its MOT and left my pass in the drivers door cubby hole. This was the place I always kept it.

The security office gave me a pass and recorded the pass number I had, my name and dept I worked.

I think you might work where I do in which case it’s manager’s discretion. Unfortunately your manager is being overly prescriptive.
Id give the redacted bank statement to keep on good terms with manager and also contact HR to see if they think this is acceptable.

Can you get one printed in branch and scrub the transactions out with a pen, leave the one you need

I would be telling security that as their system failure in not recording you being issued with a temporary pass., they owe you one. If there had been a fire that day there would have been no way of knowing if you had not heard the alarm oR been trapped.

How ironic OP that you are being a jobsworth and harping on about your principles yet most companies would be well in their right to refuse you access to the premises if you forget to bring you staff pass. It is a you problem and you are being unnecessarily contrary. As many have pointed out - you can easily override any security issues by blocking out any other transaction info.

You keep totally overplaying your inconvenience when you caused the entire issue to begin with. It is for you to sort out.

Ultimately it was your mistake in forgetting your pass that has caused this problem, so just print out the bank statement, mark out any other transactions and give it to them.

There is no point 'standing firm' when it was your mistake that led to this problem to be honest, if the temporary pass only grants you access but doesn't record your attendance then it's up to you to fix it.

This. I am all for fighting when someone oversteps, I am lawyer by trade, but this argument would take too much time and headspace for me when there is a simple solution.

It is annoying but you have proof just give it to them. By being evasive you’re highlighting yourself. Just use one of the ideas printed above & move on.

you are making this far harder than it needs to be. Do this:

1. Take a screenshot on your phone and edit immediately to redact the bits you don’t want to share.
2. Save that image to photos on your phone.
3. Then, take a screenshot of the redacted photo- there is no way for the redaction to be stripped this way, it is a fresh photo which in its original form is already redacted.

If it takes you more than 2 minutes you’re doing something wrong.

I am not comfortable using systems to redact my statement (which is paperless), my DP works in a cyber type role and has told me these programs are not fool proof. Frankly, there’s enough of a ‘big brother’ culture in this country, worse since the pandemic and going along with this sort of nonsense plays right into it.

But @HanExplorer you should still be able to print it out - do a screen print if your bank don't give the option online to actually print it out. Print it off and then redact the entries you don't want them to see. Then you can show them the redacted paper copy.

Re-read my comment. It responds to that.