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.

It’s not ‘bootlicking’ to understand that businesses need to manage their business to balance the needs of the business as well as their staff, which could include a certain number of days in the office.

I can see why your employer might be at the end of their tether with you.

The Union has only rung the manager to get a clearer idea of the what is the reason for the meeting (no doubt a little 🤔 by the OP’s ranting).

I suspect that following this call, they will extricate themselves from this.

I agree that your company is being ridiculous, but you absolutely can redact a document safely. It is done all the time in court proceedings with highly sensitive information.

if you have Adobe Acrobat or similar, redact the text (if you don’t have the redact option you can highlight in black to achieve the same effect). Then print to pdf to create a new document on which the redaction cannot be removed, or physically print it to give to your manager

if you don’t do the last steps the recipient can undo the redaction, which might be what your partner meant.

In Mac Preview even if you print to pdf the text underneath the redacted rectangle can be copied and pasted elsewhere to see. I like to save it as an image instead - if pdf is required, I then convert it back from image to pdf - as a 100% guarantee that the text underneath is totally inaccessible.

Honestly? Years ago I would have followed the path of least resistance and provided the bank statement.

Nowadays? Absolutely no way. Older and wiser, I know my worth as an employee.

The lack of trust and level of intrusion on the part of your employer is shocking.

This is why so many people hate their jobs. They have to deal with crap like this.

If you are so paranoid about redacting software print your online statement and redact with a black marker pen.

you are making a massive deal over something that can easily be resolved.

Having a set number of days in the office is absolutely fine.

Refusing to take your employee at their word when they confirm they were in the office, accusing them of faking evidence and demanding sight of extremely personal documents as proof is NOT fine, and nobody has to put up with this. It's a clear sign of a toxic work culture, and it's embarrassing how many posters are falling over themselves to justify it.

Refusing to take your employee at their word when they confirm they were in the office, accusing them of faking evidence and demanding sight of extremely personal documents as proof is NOT fine

to me this would be the response of an employer to an employee who has taken the piss and been proven to do so many times in the past.

That isn't what has happened here. It's clear from the context of OPs posts that she adheres to the in-office requirements and just forgot her pass on this occasion.

An employee repeatedly taking the piss should of course expect that to be addressed but that doesn't mean every employee should be treated like a criminal.

Forgive me for not viewing the Op as having most objective perception of her past behaviour

I’m not convinced OP is a reliable narrator of events.

Snap!

OP has clarified upthread that it’s not her manager who insists on the proof. It’s come from senior management. Which to me, sounds more like policy made on the back of more than one employee taking the piss, which is not necessarily OP.

Every post of the op to me indicates this is a bloomin tricky employer and has been for years

Well, we can all disregard a poster's account and create fictional backstories to discredit them if we like. For example, I've decided that you're a former manager who lost your job because of your insistence on searching your team's pockets every day to make sure they weren't stealing pencils, and are thus incapable of being objective on this issue.

See! Easy peasy.

Either do another day in the office. I doubt it’s that inconvenient, or blank out the transactions with marker pen on your bank statement.

No one is creating a fictional back story

but not viewing the OP’s view on her past performance at work as 100% fact…. Is not unreasonable.

To me. (And others). The way the Op has come across on this thread would indicate…. Tricky bugger 🤷

There’s a difference between “I’m inventing a whole character without evidence” and “OP says she behaves a certain way and is perceived a certain way but, here on this thread, she hasn’t behaved like that at all”.

OP’s behaviour on this thread, as exhibited and presented by OP, is not the behaviour of an employee that is easy to work with, helpful, supportive, easy-going, receptive to feedback, good at problem-solving, good attention to detail, good understanding of IT, diligent, pro-active, follows company policies… it’s hard, on the basis of all of OP’s evidenced flaws here, to see how she could be such an asset to the company that it’s totally implausible that they want to get rid of her.

I'm surprised by how many people say they'd eagerly hand over any evidence their employer demands in such a petty and unnecessary dispute.
When employees allow themselves to be treated like doormats, it becomes harder for those who are willing to question things, assert their rights, and push back against the rise of overly controlling workplaces.
Good on you for standing your ground. Hopefully, they'll reconsider this nonsense policy.

OP
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

Im intrigued what sort of transactions you are making that are so sensitive? Also, you can set the parameters of a statement so you can just show the one transaction. It does sound like you are being difficult for no reason. Alternatively print out a statement then physically hide your sensitive transactions and take a photo. Your employers sound annoying but they aren’t going to get less annoying by you being akward.

I'm surprised by how many people say they'd eagerly hand over any evidence their employer demands in such a petty and unnecessary dispute.

Are you? Perhaps some of us have a work ethic that leads us to believe that we have a responsibility to fulfill our part of a contract in which employers have rights too. The person who’s caused this unnecessary dispute is OP. I’d just have gone into the office for an extra day and never started the dispute in the first place.

Really? I’m surprised so many people wouldn’t take two minutes out of their day to rectify a misunderstanding that they caused.

Also people are missing that the reason OP is being asked for the statement is because the proof she offered to show she was in the office was that she bought lunch. It comes across weird to use that as proof but then take issue with backing up the claim.

But she did, they just chose not to take her word on it when she explained and decided to treat her like an untrustworthy delinquent. That’s not an employer I would be happy to work for, but the thread suggests there are lots that would.