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.

I think they’re being ridiculous for wanting you to prove you were in the office that day.

I also think it’s ridiculous that you had a temporary pass and they apparently have no system to check this.

But I also think you’re being ridiculous to not want to send your bank statement and talking about big brother.

You admitted you already screenshotted the transaction and so you obviously use online banking and so obviously aren’t that worried about what you’re pretending to be worried about.

You can easily screenshot your account showing the transaction and your details and then blank the rest out or just search for that transaction.

I don’t think you actually went in.

Isnt there a record of you signing for a temporary pass. Surely they not given out without you signing for it or someone signing to say they gave it to you.

"Our records show you weren't here?"

"I can prove that I was! I have a witness and documents!"

"Great! Can you provide us with any of that?"

"NO! HOW VERY DARE YOU!"

It is simple enough to print out your statement,tippex out whatever you wish to have hidden, and scan it. There is NO WAY the underlying information can be revealed from that.

Jesus Christ I can’t believe you’ve roped a union into this rather than provide a very small amount of information 😂

I think it's ridiculous and as said before would send the proof with my resignation. That said, as a one-off I would expect the company to prove OP lied rather than have her prove she was there. They have CCTV, IP address from computers, temporary pass logs, whoever talked with her on the phone, evidence of work either done or not... evidence exists. Lying is gross misconduct, they should not imply it if they aren't prepared to bring the proof.

I have a disabled daughter and often have to fill in documentation requests for her. A bank account is treated as proof of identity (one of two, you need a passport, birth certificate too) but they will only accept a pdf, not a screen shot. It is annoying as her banking app doesn't offer this facility, though the web based service does. But we've forgotten how to get into that as she never uses it.

Anyway, my point is that they won't accept screen shots. And I am guessing that somewhere in the OP's company procedures is a policy that requires statements/pdfs, not screen shots.

It may be there for some other reason that for what the OP is trying to do. But I bet it's there and the manager has been told by HR to get hold of the pdf.

Hang it all.

To be perfectly honest, I would get the statement as a back up, but I would not give it to them as really it proves nothing about the work you completed that day.

I would suggest, however, that they are perfectly within their rights to check out the event veiwer on your computer and check the log for themselves.

I just checked mine it went back a few months.

I bet you are a very difficult colleague and employer op, everything about your posts (and indeed the very reason why you started this OP) screams…. Tricky bugger!

That depends though...

CCTV won't have been retained for this long, I'm not sure what you mean by "IP address" (could you clarify? do you think they'll be checking the IP address her emails came from that day? how?), the temporary pass log may also not have been retained this long, they're unlikely to know who spoke to OP on her call because OP refused to say (and they aren't going to poll all her colleagues), work can be done at home so doesn't prove she was there... There's a good chance they've checked alternative routes already (like they checked her swipe card and with the temp card).

As you said, lying is gross misconduct. If I were OP, I'd want to prove I'm not lying pretty swiftly. Ultimately, "I can prove it but I won't prove it" tends to be equated with "I can't prove it and I'm lying", it's not a good look for OP whether she turns out to be vindicated or not.

Will you bother to turn up though OP?!

I think they just need, for their records, proof that it was the OP that made the transaction. At the moment, they only have proof that someone made a transaction which doesn't suffice for their records.

I'm late to this brawl but I'm with the OP and some. It sounds like your manager will happily make out you might be a fraud and throw you under a bus to make sure she's safe. Security is so lax there's no record of you being in the building and there's an acknowledgement that there's CCTV but no intention of being of any help.
I'd be asking what would happen if the union rep suggested a constructive dismissal claim might be on its way.

I'm way to long in the tooth for this sort of shit and one way loyalty. Though I acknowledge so may not be in such a position as to stand their ground.

OP, you have a very shitty attitude, given that the issue is down to you forgetting your pass to swipe.

Even if the OP provided a bank statement, showing part of the card number, amount, location, date and time etc, that still doesn't prove her presence, it only indicates that the card was used. However, given that the company is willing to assume that the card was used by its owner and no-one else, then the OP shouldn't need to provide a bank statement. Just let them see your card, and the receipt, or say (as best as you can recall) what time you used the card. The company can log into their card payment provider account (eg SumUp or WorldPay) and see the full details of the transaction on THEIR account.

Open any email OP sent that day and get "XOriginatingSource"; have IT validate that IP belongs to their office, or does not belong to their office.

I’m not sure why you’re not keen. Redact the data apart from the safe spend?
any travel expenses that you can show

An issue may be if the on-site food provider isn't owned or run by the employer - there's a chain coffee place in my office building but it's not related to my employer at all. Even ones people assume are office canteens are run by separate companies - I know that school lunches, for example, are often entirely independent providers, schools wouldn't be able to access individual transactions.

That doesn't exist anymore. It was removed by email providers for privacy reasons. Also, most larger companies use a VPN which would prevent it working.

Eh? No one said she wasn’t working? She went into the office, her temporary card just didn’t log it.

Eh? No one said she wasn’t working? She went into the office, her temporary card just didn’t log it.

Forget about the redacted bank statement you clearly are ignoring all the good advice on this

you said one call was with someone from my team. I’m reluctant to drag them in to this though to say I was sat in the office

why the fuck are you wasting everyone’s time, including the union's that have actual issues they could be dealing with, rather than calling on an eye witness

drama llama much!

Feel like there is more background to this that just wants been said. Is this the first time you haven’t met your contracted office hours? It seems very strange they would be demanding a bank statement the first time you are missing one days office work, especially when you’ve said you had a temporary pass.

Why would you need to use a "system"?
Print it, use a black marker to blank what you need to or stick bits of white paper over, then copy/take a photo

Going to have to disagree on this. They provide her the system of which to work. If she forgets her cards they should have a traceable system for the temps cards or what is the point?

they can easily check the cards who swiped in and out that day and it would presumably show a temp card that day being used at the time the Op said. They could ask the security the check the cameras. Only after these avenues have been exhausted should the Op be required to provide personal data to prove her innocence. She may not have used the canteen that day and have no personal proof. So what then? She was the office using an office issued temp card. She couldn’t have got in the building otherwise. They are in effect docking her pay because their systems are rubbish. I doubt very much an employment tribunal (at the extreme end of fighting this) would look very favourably on that.

In any event her bank statement will not be definitive proof of exactly when the transaction was made as it may appear on a different day of she used her debit card.

she may not have her train ticket any more

the manager can ask the witness themself as part of the investigation. That is an HR issue

i would argue that they put her at risk by not attributing the temp card to her. Had there been a fire in the building how would they have any idea if she was in it or not? When they check the card logs they wouldn’t have a clue if she was in the building. That is extreme negligence on the employer’s part