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're being silly, OP. Just do as everyone says here: screenshot it your statement showing the date and purchase, then use a black pen to hide the rest of the entries, then take a photocopy. There's no way anyone could get anything from that.

You are right in theory but in practice this is a hoop you have to jump through and digging your heels in is just being difficult.

Why is this request even reasonable? Surely it’s the work’s problem, when they issued a temporary card and failed to log the system. I think your manager is being a control freak.

Print statement out. Redact it with a big black marker. Photo it and send it to them?

I’m not sure if work for a company who so evidently didn’t trust me. Surely they have a record of people using temp passes? To placate I’d redact the statement but would probably be looking at moving on from such an odd company.

Would your office computer show you used it on the day in question?

Did you need to do anything to get the temporary card?

OP, I found your post interesting because my organisation also requires employees to average two office days per week, and attendance is tracked using building access and network logins; both have to occur.

This policy was introduced after a noticeable number of staff didn’t return to the office post-COVID. We also relocated last year, and there's clearly a push to have people using the new office space.

Line managers get monthly reports, and anyone who hasn’t met the minimum office days over the past three months has to explain why so it doesn’t get further escalate to the next level manager.

Escalation steps have recently been introduced for continued non-compliance, and while they haven’t said what the final consequence is, it seems likely that dismissal would be the plan..

Like others here, I don’t see why a redacted version of a bank statement couldn’t be shared. I did briefly wonder if we might even work at the same place…

@HanExplorer fgs. If you don’t want to send a digitally redacted one - print one off. Use a permanent marker or tape or something to hide all other transactions and details. Take a picture or scan. Ta dahhhh

you are putting obstacle in place. Even a digitally redacted one (or do it in canvas and compress the image layers etc and send as a pdf or image) - honestly who will care enough to use top super duper software to enhance it and see your secret costa habit?

Why on earth would you send anything

You had a temporary pass. Their systems should be capable of noting their own policies.

Obviously you could send a redacted bank statement and then raisenthe temporary pass issue as a gap in their procedures

And maybe look for another job cos your manager sounds daft!

This is exactly what happens when I go into the office. We were brought back in 3 days a week and 99% I do not collaborate with anyone or discuss work related issues with anyone. My coworker who does the same job that I do, got an exception and gets to work fully remotely. So even when she and I collaborate it's always via a phone call or Teams.

I never collaborate with my other two coworkers as we all do different jobs and they never collaborate with anyone else either. We all sit with earbuds in most of the day. It's a waste of time, energy and money to be in the office, but they want arses in seats for whatever reason so we have no choice. Its ridiculous.

You're been very silly!!!

I work in a professional services role (a large, international company) and it’s a condition of our insurance that we’re in 3 days a week on average.

@Frozo are you sure you haven’t just been given this as a bogus reason? why is your companies insurer requiring that? What’s their explanation? Makes no sense, better building benefits and saving company costs with more wfh.

surely just print the statement and manually Sharpie out anything you don't want them to see? There's no point arguing about cctv and safety logs - just do it and get it over with?

Not really sure why all the fuss really

To be honest I think everyone is behaving strangely here.

Firstly you - you’re being paranoid about redacting your information. If proper redactions used in eg Adobe Acrobat could easily be reversed like that and the redacted information visible, it would be a major security issue to the extent it would be first page news.

If your manager isn’t bothered enough to fetch CCTV footage, what makes you think they’re going to be able to pull off some underground, dark-web level stunt to “reverse redactions” on your redacted statement?

You could also redact the statement and then send an image of the statement as opposed to the raw file in any case. Open the image in photoshop and re-export it as a PDF? It would look the same to the naked eye. Your H might work in cyber security but he doesn’t seem very tech literate as there’s ways you can easily remove hidden data.

as for your Employer - Obviously your employer is using a heavy fist here. I would say your cards are marked. You seem to be hesitant to concede that your manager wants you out. But in my opinion, this conversation would not have gone this far, if they trusted/valued you. I think it’s more that they don’t have a full basis to invite you to a formal meeting (especially as they can’t be bothered to get the CCTV etc) which is why they are handling this in a fluffy manner. But they clearly don’t trust your word or the evidence you provided already.

You do run the danger that next time you turn up without a pass you will get turned away rather than be given a temporary one.

Then you will have to either go home and get it, or do the extra day because you can't get on site.

So be careful what you wish for.

my prediction for your meeting tomorrow:

• they’re going to somewhat challenge you and explore why exactly you won’t share a bank statement with them. they won’t be “soft”. They likely will write down and record what you say.
• You’re going to say personal information.
• You’re going to mention alternatives like pass records and CCTV.
• They say they not going to push this specific incident further but will make a record of it. They will make this seem “soft”, like they’re doing you a favour.
• in reality, they are going to start noting why you “forgot” your pass at home. There’s going to be an implication of a lack of care/organisation.
• If you do it again, they will come down on you.

You don’t need to ‘drag them through’ that is wholly unnecessary when you can print your bank statement and take a black marker to whatever you don’t want them to see.

should you have to, no, but you gain nothing by refusing and just make yourself look like an ass. Especially if you bring other colleagues into it when you literally have the evidence there.

though I suspect that perhaps you don’t have that evidence

It is very insulting. They have effectively accused you of lying about when you were in the office and of fabricating evidence. If I were you I'd start hunting for a different job.
However, your top priority now should be clearing your name. Prove them wrong! By refusing to provide evidence you are making yourself look guilty. Even if you leave for a new job you will need your current employer to write you good references vouching for your honesty and integrity.
Like others have said, you could filter your online statement to only show transactions on the relevant date. Or you can print out your bank statement and manually cross out the irrelevant transactions. Or, you can say that you are unwilling for anyone to have a copy of your bank statement but are willing (if you would be) to show your manger the bank statement on the screen your phone/laptop without them recording a copy. Doing this will put an end to the nonsense. Otherwise it will just drag on and suspicion of you will remain.

Sorry have only read OPs replies so this may very well be "cancel the cheque" but does your phone keep a timeline or track your movements? If so that may be useful.

You know now that of this happens again in the future you need to take a picture of yourself in the office with the date on a post it note!!

As I’ve already said to PP, our insurance policy is available to read.

The reasoning is that our jobs are based on skill - we learn that skill from our colleagues. From watching them do and interacting with them. The opinion is that, if someone is in the office too little as a junior then it increases the likelihood they’ll make mistakes and no one is able to physically oversee what they’re doing and they’ve spent less time observing others do things well. At the other end of the spectrum, senior colleagues need to be in for juniors to learn from them.

Surely what you’re saying makes no sense. You’ve just pointed out that the business benefit from not having us in so how does it make sense that the business would force us in and lie about why?

You’re not being unreasonable to say no, I’m not coming, but I’m with other posters. Just give her your bank statement and black out all the other transactions.

Holy cow. So let me get this straight.

You have to come in two days a month which doesn’t seem punitive or ridiculous:

You commute is an hour away - not that long or restrictive but yes there is a cost.

You have to prove you are in the building twice a month. The way this is down is through your swipe card and no other system. You have a swipe card to do this. You forgot your card which is on you.

You have been called up by your manager for not coming in one of the two days and asked to make it up next month. You dig in and say no.

You can prove you are in the office and the whole thing goes away but you are cyberly reluctant and say no. So you didn’t use your card and now can’t prove it.

You dig in and ask for temp pass records which don’t exist. An impasse ensues which again you can easily mitigate and you say no.

Your manager digs in and speaks to their manager and they require the bank statement. You say no.

You dig in and want cctv or security footage because someone having to trawl through footage, find you, blur out others and submit it seems a reasonable spend of someone else’s time to you.

You have now been called to a meeting with your manager and managers manager to discuss and instead of taking the path of least resistance and making this all go away you accuse your employer of being unreasonable, waste everyone’s time, put a seriously bad taste in the mouth of the managers and still don’t produce the statement.

This situation is beyond ridiculous caused by you. Could be mitigated by you and you still don’t get it.

YABVVVU

Also your train ticket would do!

I have spoken with my Union rep and they have contacted my manager to understand the purpose of tomorrow’s meeting. If needed, they will push for me having suitable representation from the Union in attendance. They agree it’s a ridiculous situation.

Well when in doubt bury them with paperwork

I'd be raising a grievance against this manager for humiliating treatment and even if it goes nowhere you've wasted some of their life minutes