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.

You don’t need redacting tools or apps - as others have said print it and use black marker or screen shot and save as a photo then use the editing feature to erase the bits you don’t want to share. I agree, you shouldn’t have to prove it but this is making a whole lot drama out of nothing when you could edit and share a statement in a matter of minutes!

As soon as the bullshite excuses come from the company, like the one about CCTV, I'd be inclined to be as obtuse as possible.

The manager sounds utterly shite TBH, they dont have a policy in palce to deal with such instances and as such the burden of proof should not fall onto the OP. She's offered a screenshot of a purchase from an on-site cafe, and now they want a statement showing her name and address to prove it's her account.

The manager is essentially rejecting your evidence provided and is saying she doesn't believe you, she is calling you a liar. You've suggested she could look at CCTV and she's given you another bullshite excuse as to why she can't do it.

At this point, I'd submit a SAR and also CC the manager and her manager, highlighting why it has been requested. Perhaps, based on her excellent record so far, she should be given the benefit of the doubt based on the evidence already provided.

Just print the bank statement and use a black marker to blank everything else out

I'd be standing firm too. Sod bending to their petty demands. They are demonstrating clearly that they dont trust you or value your word, and are treating you like a school child. You were in the office, so surely the responsibility is on them to prove you weren't?

None of the good managers I've had would ever be asking for evidence in addition to my word. Toxic managers on the other hand...

I'd be looking for a new job. They've shown what they think of you.

Shouldn't it be on the company to prove you weren't there? @HanExplorer

Bit of a faff for you, but there is a solution:

1. print out the bank statement on your home printer
2. get an A4 piece of thick white paper or cardstock
3. Use a utility knife to cut out holes in positions that line up over your name and over the one transaction you want to reveal
4. put the cardstock over your bank statement and make 2 identical photocopies that only reveal what you want to reveal
5. Give them one, and keep the other in case they « lose » it

Job done. Proof given. No more meetings. No need to come in an extra day.

You really shouldn't have to, but I would be tempted to show them your statement and find a way of tactfully telling your manager how overbearing and oppressive this kind of rubbish really is.

Print !
tippex !
or Sharpie !

Do you not use adobe? You can use that to redact a screenshot/pdf of your bank statement without it being a cyber risk surely?

In person are you happy for them to review your statement on your phone?

Its bad that they don’t record who has temporary passes that seems like a large omission in security and surely negates one of the purposes of having passes?

I think it is a mistake to blank out your bank statement. You have offered to show them that you made a transaction on the premises that day, however, you will need to show that there were not other transactions made during working hours elsewhere on that day. It could just look like you bunked off to go shopping and have blanked out the evidence!

I think at the very least you would need to show all transactions made on the day in question.

It's equally time consuming for you to provide what they're asking for.
However.
You could screenshot your bank statement and use edit tools to blank out all other info except your name/address, save the document like that and email it.
Or resort to asking the colleague who knows you were in.
Alternatively they could have proper systems in place around the issue of temporary passes. It feels as though poor record-keeping in this area could land them in trouble if there was a need for an emergency evacuation.
Or they could prove you "weren't there" by checking the cctv.

This level of micro management is petty and erodes goodwill

As so after, first post nails it.

Surely the “system’ is a printed statement and a sharpie?

Fire regs. Sounds as if those companies were in breach.

Have you never had a fire drill and had to file out to the car park and have your name checked off a tick list — and been in trouble when you decided it was just a drill and you continued to work through it, until security came looking for you, escorted you out and you were talked to and sent on a half-day H&S course as punishment?

don't you have to sign in to get the temporary pass? that would be your evidence.
Are you in a union? I'd be having a word with them

Surely you also have proof of travel, do they have any sort of CCTV? It’s very petty of them to double down on extra proof if you’ve already shown a transaction but you can redact the other transactions if you provide the full statement - also they need to sort their processes out if they are this anal 🙄 there should be a way of tracking a temp pass and if there isn’t they need to sort it ASAP. Idiots.

You don’t want to provide a bank statement so you alternative is to do an extra day and be more organised with your pass in future. You have your solutions just action them and stop whining about your perceived unfairness. You forgot your pass, so take the accountability.

Just print the page out after blanking it and then take a photo of it for them. They will not be able to do anything.

You should be able to do this in a basic editor.

So it’s too time consuming for them to go through CCTV, but they expect you to piss about printing and redacting a bank statement. I’d just ignore them now and not go in the extra day in June either.

Surely you can download your bank statement and redact the hard copy? You sound like you are being very awkward and difficult. Surely there are more important things in life to make a silly stand over?

Do this. Print it or print a screenshot and redact all values and transactions. Simple job done. They then look like tits for questioning you, especially if the company has cctv footage showing you entering exiting the building.

Does your banking app let you screengrab? Mine does, so I would just screengrab the whole thing then, if you have an iPhone, you can edit in your normal photo app - click the “add shape” feature. Add a big black rectangle on all your other transactions above and below the one of their on-site restaurant. Screenshot it again and send them that - that way, there’s no way of unediting it because it’s a screenshot of a screenshot.

I agree with others that this is incredibly toxic and pedantic, I’d want to look elsewhere. I’d also want to raise this with someone above your manager as a complaint/something that needs to be looked at. There should be a level of trust between employer and employees that just doesn’t seem to exist?

Going forward, I’d take a selfie in the office and be a pedantic cow and send it to my manager - though they might be the type that then expects that and thinks it’s something you owe them rather than petty, malicious compliance.

This is the point you lost me. You sound like a pain in the arse.

It sounds like a bloody fascist regime, your work. If you want to make it go away while you look for less fascistic employers, you could give them a copy of your bank statement for that day only and with everything else blacked out ie redacted.

I couldn’t work for a place that treats you so badly