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 would hazard a guess this employer would be delighted if the Op handed in her resignation (or retired)

how did they cause the misunderstanding? They went to office and were given a work issued temp card. She worked the day, gave the temp card back. What should they have done differently? I normally forget my pass a couple of times a year for various reasons. I have had collegues lose their cards on occasion. It isn’t a very extraordinary thing to do unless you do it constantly

Exactiy, for the sake of just ONE day out of hundreds/thousands that they can't vouch for.

Embarrassing how many posters are either managers who treat their staff like criminals, are office pyschopaths, or employees that are so enslaved to towing the line in a toxic environment, that they believe it's absolutely right.

Because their office attendance is tracked on their pass and she forgot her pass. That is 100% on her.

No one said it was an “extraordinary” thing. I just said that she caused the discrepancy. That’s not in dispute. She caused the discrepancy. You’ve accepted that she caused the discrepancy. That doesn’t mean doing so was “extraordinary”, it simply means that when they ask her about it, she doesn’t get to act aggrieved.

When she explains that she had a temp pass that should’ve been the end of it. It wasn’t the end of it because there’s no evidence of that. As discussed throughout the thread, it would be extremely unlikely that there was no record taken at the time… so if there’s no record now, it’s either that it was a long time ago or that it didn’t happen.

Then she explains that she bought lunch but has refused to show proof of this. She claims to have a witness but won’t provide the witness…

They have two pieces of solid evidence she wasn’t in the office and all they have is OP’s explanation and OP’s refusal to prove her explanation when she easily could. It’s not often that someone who is telling the truth refuses to prove it for no good reason - that choice would make any normal person suspicious.

Or…. Read the op and follow up posts and think “oooh I imagine this is one hell of a tricky awkward bugger who has a long history of taking the piss”

Don't export as a PDF which can be layered, instead export it as a jpeg or PMG.

@HanExplorer for cctv they don't need to provide a copy of the footage just confirm they see you on the cameras entering the building. They have your photo on file in the system, they can verify it against that.

If you want to make sure they cannot see your transactions on your bank statement, open your pdf, blank out what you want on it then screenshot that. No way to reverse it.

It’s absolutely incredible that adhering to your side of your contract of employment is seen as “towing [sic] the line in a toxic environment”. It’s perfectly reasonable for an employer to require proof that an employee was where they were supposed to be on a day they were paid for.

I’m neither a manager, an office psychopath or in a toxic work environment.

To me, a toxic work environment is one where someone doesn’t responsibility for their own errors. One where they call in the union rep every time they don’t want to do a reasonable thing. One where people lie. One where people think rules don’t apply to them. One where people have conspiracy theories about the tech. One where people intentionally make others’ jobs harder. One where people think the rules don’t apply to them. One where people turn every discussion into a conflict. One where people act suspiciously and then tantrum about being treated with suspicion.

Workplaces become extremely toxic when staffed by people who won’t just get on with it.

Exactly - my beef with this is that that are basically not asking her to prove the OP was in the office, they are asking her to prove she isn’t lying.

the company, quite rightly, did an audit and got a discrepancy. Perfectly acceptable to ask the OP to explain which she did. Her explanation makes sense as the OP would have reasonably assumed her temp card was traceable (who would think they would be given a temp card without a note being made as to who had it?) and so when she said she had one, she could have reasonably assumed they would check. She wouldn’t have known they wouldn’t be able to trace it to her.

A reasonable work would say, we have a good employee here who has always been where she said she is previously and her story checks out so we will accept it.

now they could have then gone, thanks for confirming OP we will just go off and verify so we can dot the i’s and cross the t’s and as the process is to record our own interval evidence to say it was checked. That could be a quick confirmation from security that they have observed her coming in or a check of the logs from the pass to check for a temp pass at the time the OP said. They could have check the IT logs as other people have suggested. Nice and easy.

but instead they basically have said ‘we don’t believe you’ so the onus is on the OP to prove she was telling the truth. I don’t understand why people think they wouldn’t be upset to be called a liar at your place of work and have to jump through hoops to prove you were where you said you were. The OP has fulfilled her contractual terms- I find it bizarre people think she is being difficult when she was in the office and did do her work that day. She did absolutely nothing wrong and the work has plenty of ways to confirm her story before it gets to the point of asking the OP to produce her bank statement.

Or just an employer with hundreds of staff who can’t afford to set a precedent of ‘taking someone’s word’ because piss takers would be right onto it.

Btw, I can’t believe the union is now involved!
I’d be managing OP out.

You’ve assumed a lot in there.

You’ve assumed they can’t trace temp passes at all rather than that they can’t find any trace of OP specifically.

You’ve assumed her story checks out.

You’ve assumed they have a good employee who has always been where she’s said previously.

You’ve assumed the policy (written by people who have probably never met OP) allows for managers to willy-nilly believe someone they like and demand proof from someone they don’t. That leads to discrimination suits.

You’ve assumed (despite several threads to the contrary) that her IT logs will show whether she was in office or not.

What if they did do that? What if IT have said she wasn’t in the office? What if they found the witness and the witness didn’t confirm her story? What if they have a record of every other temp pass and nothing for OP? What if they checked CCTV and she’s not on it?

Do they still need to take her word then? We have no idea what they have or haven’t checked, or what they can or cannot check.

It would be very unlikely that they haven’t checked every avenue they can before a disciplinary meeting… if they’re going ahead with the meeting, they have nothing showing her in the office.

That's the thing, though - maybe they have checked and there isn't a shred of evidence to show that she was in the building. You know, the Enough Rope approach.

She does get to act aggrieved if they gave her the temp pass. It was their temp pass and it should have been recorded against her name. If there is a company issue where if someone forgets their pass and this will cause a discrepancy on your attendance numbers then the company should communicate this to employees explaining that they need to email their manager to say they are in the office that day. They need to be clear that a temp pass will not be recorded against their name. That is a process failure on the company’s fault.

well if the work believe that that is very serious and there should be a formal investigation and the OP should be put on formal notice of gross misconduct charge . That is way beyond the information the OP has provided and we can only go off her side of the story. It is impossible to make any assumptions about the thought process of the work

I don’t understand why people think they wouldn’t be upset to be called a liar at your place of work and have to jump through hoops

The same people provide sick notes from their doctor to get sick leave/pay and that letter when you’re pregnant to get maternity leave.

Because the policies are in place to stop people lying. The policies aren’t written by people we know or who know us. They aren’t calling us a liar specifically when they ask for proof, they’re saying “some people lie” (which is an indisputable fact) and “we have to treat everyone fairly” (which is the law). There’s a very clear explanation why the company have done what they have.

There’s no reason for OP’s refusal.

That’s exactly what is happening!

Is it? This just seemed an informal conversation.

at my work if there is a serious charge we send a formal invite for the employee to attend a meeting where the allegation is presented to them and there is a formal process that has to involve an independent hearing manager. That manager has to interview the OP, gather evidence, interview the managers etc and decide the outcome. Termination for gross misconduct is extremely serious and not something to be done without due process

this!

OP you caused a problem so you need to fix it ( sending an unidentifiable part bank statement clearly isn’t going to be enough 😊 )

I am surprised that the employer pass system is apparently so useless in many ways but am inclined to think that maybe the OP doesn’t want them to investigate further using that source?

The process for a gross misconduct dismissal will need to have had an “information gathering process”. OP has been asked to attend a meeting, she is taking a union rep. I have seen several occasions where employees have walked out of those without a job.

There is nothing informal about a meeting with the union there. If it seemed informal and not like she’s being investigated, why does OP want a union rep there?

There is no need for notice to OP of the charges, and no need to give her time to prepare a defence or see the evidence. OP isn’t involved in the “due process” - her not being told doesn’t meet it isn’t happening behind the scenes.

The only process they need is to have checked thoroughly and to be certain.

Your workplace sounds awful. If this is a one-off, and not part of a wider pattern, any reasonable manager would accept your explanation and take it on trust.

Having said that, in your situation, I would probably suck it up and either work the extra day in the office or provide a redacted bank statement.

And I would also be looking for another job.

I work in HR and we also use turnstile data to monitor office attendance

Whilst this seems excessive I’d be inclined to share a redacted bank statement just to close the issue. You could otherwise risk some sort of formal letter or process

Blimey, bank statements, CCTV footage, union reps getting involved.. I’d just think fuck it and work the extra day in the office and do bugger all work and/or have a terrible migraine and have to go home early.

After all this I really hope the employer will put a system in place to ensure all temporary passes are properly logged. Unless there is such a system, and OP is claiming that her pass was not logged for some reason?

I'll say it again, all you who are on the side of the company are part of the toxic work culture we have. Surely you're not all yes people (or as my grandad would say - brown-nosers) who would sell their souls for a promotion or even just to be liked.

Good for you OP, stand up for yourself!!