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.

Does your Google maps (or similar) not track your location? When I'm scrambling to remember where I've been to do an expenses report I use a combination of Google maps history and life 360 to work out where I was.

I'm not sure what is more ridiculous. The company spending time and money on proving you were or were not in the office that day or you not providing your bank statement.

Print your statement out, block out other purchases using card or a black marker, photograph it and scan to employer. If you don't want to do this then work an extra day in the office. I guess it depends what's more important to you.

What normal, sensible company would refuse a staff member access to their place of work if they forgot their id badge (outside of lines of work where security really does matter) if they can otherwise prove who they are?

People forget things from time to time. If the company is willing to give a known staff member a temp badge they absolutely should be keeping a record of who has been issued that badge. It's not the OP's issue at all, it's a failure entirely down to the company not knowing who is in their building at any given time.

PITA systems and pedantic jobs-worth managers…hmmm. Think I’d be looking for another role tbh op.

Honestly, I’d provide the statement with an email that noted I was extremely disappointed that they trusted me so little. I’d also include my resignation if I felt able to.

It seems incredibly petty of a company to argue about one day per month. And keep on asking when you’ve given a plausible response. And keep asking when you’ve provided evidence (screenshot). Especially if your performance isn’t questionable.

id be asking what are the implications if you decline to provide FURTHER evidence or go in one extra day next month. I’d be asking where they will file your paper bank statement if you do provide it, how long they will keep it on file, etc to ensure that complies with GDPR. How they plan on improving their reporting and monitoring in the future in case you forget your pass and perhaps don’t buy lunch and what are their time frame of doing this. Depends how petty you want to be in return.

finally have you considered mocking up a bank statement… typing out the valid info off your bank statement, transcribing all the irrelevant stuff as junk, then redacting and sticking the logo on and printing it out.

just save it to your lap top and photo shop out the bits you don't want to share and show them that, it doesn't take long. I'd look for another job if they didn't take me at my word anyway they sound like a bunch of c* nts
I had to prove I'd been to a funeral once in my home town by getting the funeral notice from the local paper and take back a local paper from the date I'd been there ! I left soon after that, it was the last straw after having to get doctors and dentist sign a bit of paper to prove attendance, so embarrassing. Not the same as proving you were in the office I know.

If you were issued a temporary pass, surely the person who issued it has a record of that? Isn't that the simplest thing, win-win?

Your IT people will be able to easily see which terminal you logged in on that day.

oh, so just print your your bank statement now - and share it here, will you?

after all, you won't be bothered about us seeing what's on there...

It doesn't really.

For security reasons and based on this policy re: office working, the idea that a company would only hold records for a short time is patently absurd.

For safeguarding and security reasons even if the log is normally kept but was "forgotten" on this occasion that is still a huge issue. The company has a responsibility to safeguard staff. If there is not an accurate record of who is in a company office at any one time that is a massive failing.

And you don't fix either of those issues with a print out of a bank statement. I would absolutely pick this hill to die on.

I'd be back and forth-ing for DAYS about this - telling them every time the temporary pass log will show my attendance. waste their time.

No it isn’t. They have a temp pass that they gave her. That is their system not hers. Everyone forgets from time to time and they need to ensure they actually record who is the in building for fire reasons more than anything. If they don’t record that’s on them. They can go through the logs of all the passes and isolate the temp pass that was used on that day and see if it corresponds with her timings.

and of course they can view footage. What is the point of the cameras if it can’t be used to check whether or not someone entered the facility. all the manager has to do it ask security to confirm if the OP was seen entering that day.

Go to your online banking. Use the search function to search for transactions with that name (whatever name comes up for debits to your on site shop). It will then only show those transactions. You can then print or screenshot the whole page, which will show your name and account and then only those transactions.

Question is, why do you mind them seeing your bank statement. It will have your name, address, sort code and account number, all information they already have to pay your wages.

Then a load of in's and outs and a running total, they can't do anything with that information, and I doubt what you spent at Tesco last week really interests them that much.

If its a big issue for you, there are three options:

1/. send it redacted, print, black marker, photo and send
2/. Do an extra day in the office
3/. take you statement physically in to HR for them to view but don't give them a copy.

Seems a lot of fuss, yes they are being pedantic, but its not a big problem to give them the info and move on.

@HanExplorer What happened to giving staff the benefit of the doubt? Unless, trends/patterns have already been identified causing concern which is not the case here, I’d expect a manager to just exercise their own judgement 🤦🏻‍♀️

*Also, I just thought, surely reception who organised the temp pass for you should have your details. Can you not just take a photo of the log book showing your details and the ID no. of the pass entered?

Surely there is a record of you getting your temp pass and then they can check against temp card no xyz where and when it was used etc?

Print your statement black out everything you don’t want them to see with a permanent marker then scan back in and email it

I would also be asking questions about their temporary pass issuing system if any tom dick or harry can get one and there is no record

You are both making a massive mountain out of a molehill.

I suspect there is more going on here because this is not how a trusting employer - employee relationship works.

Print out the bank statement, cover all the other information you don’t want them to see with white paper and scan it into a photo copier.

If they don’t accept this, I’d probably just suck it up and work the extra day as I was the one who forgot my pass.

Print the statement, redact everything but the transaction and your name. Provide evidence of commute and location. You have been offered rational, and acceptable solutions to quite a minor request. It might be a faff, but a small task if you enjoy hybrid working. You are making yourself look awkward and guilty by protesting about reasonable requests from your employer.

Just print a page off and black out/redact all the excess data.

Print it off. Manually redact, take photo, send to management
Or bring up banking app, search one transaction and screen shot

Because jobs are soooo easy to come by!

I can't believe people are literally suggesting OP quits a job which (as we haven't been given any information to the contrary) she is otherwise satisfied with because of one slightly pedantic request. She could have solved this whole thing in less than a minute by just saying "ask Emily, I had a meeting with her and she saw I was in the office."

Alert the press - boss makes vaguely annoying request of staff member. Never before seen incident.