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.

Yeah but no need for insulting others that have opposing views…. I mean why ask if you only want “yes people”, which a lot on here are.

they even cited that this would have been a PR disaster had it got out.

As someone who worked in PR and comms for several decades I can assure you that your union rep is wrong. I could make an excellent case for your employer.

Well it sounds like the union reps' response was sufficiently strong to warrant them dropping the matter.

Well done OP. A good win against employer overreach and pettiness.

Indeed. He was still wrong about it being a “PR disaster”.

Have the company actually confirmed that OP doesn't have to make up the day?

I dunno, some people and some companies are really stupid. Reality can be weirder than fiction!

What excellent case could you make? That your company treats all its adult employees as if they are lying and has ridiculously strict policies about in-office days with no flexibility, and can't track who it gives a temporary pass to and when?

Good luck with that one.

Not sure why you think your opinion is some kind of holy law we have to follow.

That's just silly, it's only my opinion not 'holy' law 🤣

The Holy Religion of the Murder of Crows doth say, don't be a brown-noser in the workplace and stand up for yourself 😁

I guess that’s why I had a successful career in comms and you quite obviously don’t because it wouldn’t look anything like that.

Am I missing something here? If you have an issue with redacting info online/digitally just print the statement and redact it manually job done.

Mind you I'd be off, I could not bare to work in an environment where people are not treated as adults it sounds like a awful place to work. I would be suprised if you were required to log your visits to the restroom!

I'd give it them redacted of course but I would also be moving jobs.

Does whoever issued the temporary pass not have a record?

your company sounds draconian. What happened to trust?

Sorry should have read the full thread. Excellent results and a win to common sense in a roundabout way

Condition of insurance? I manage insurance team for a large organisation and this just seems bizarre. I can’t see why an insurer would make such a stipulation.

Every time in the past 30 years when I’ve had to get a visitors pass at a number of different employers I’ve had to sign on a sheet to receive it. And, as many other people note, just redact the other transactions on the statement.

We’re not getting the full story.

Just redact the other transactions

I'd be genuinely interested in hearing this case.

Iwas in your corner until this post you sound very smug!

I think if you go into your bank account you can request the payment /s for the name of the restaurant which should give you the information for your offfice.

I’m sure you would but I don’t work for nothing.

OP, you said 'case closed' so I assume the company agrees with the union rep's position. Otherwise your manager and manager's manager may simply have cancelled the meeting to digest the findings and might still respond.

Even if the company backs down, I fear you may have won the battle but lost the war. The pragmatic approach is to provide a redacted hard copy of your bank statement and move on but you chose to escalate to your union. Your managers' won't say it but you have blotted your copybook in their minds as an awkward so-and-so for no real reason.

I agree with others that you should probably leave anyway as you are acting like someone who is going to.

Well done on standing firm HanExplorer and yay for the power and support of a good union rep.
I'm sure other people in your workplace will be pleased this conflict in the monitoring of attendance policy has been discovered and now can be fixed. If you'd just provided a redacted statement it would have become incumbent on all employees to prove their attendance - now it's on the employer which is where it should be.

This, it’s a bit of nonsense and I couldn’t be arsed but just to get it finished, third is what I’d do.

Did you type and save any files on a company computer that would contain metadata? If I saved work on my work computer and go to properties the metadata would show where that document was created.

If you took any photos on your phone that would also contain metadata and prove your location.

It’s possible your train pass could contain data on what day you travelled to the office?

I’ve been in a similar situation to you. However, I was accused of falsifying my work hours (which was very very serious). My employer went through my swipe card data which showed I left the office a lot sooner than indicated in my time sheet even though I hadn’t yet submitted my time sheet. They must have got IT to access my electronic timesheet before I submitted it. It was a complete stitch up. I was completely shocked by the allegation.

I explained I hadn’t put my time sheet through yet as I had smashed my phone and I relied on notes I kept in my phone to keep time records but also it’s common practice not to use your own card to enter and leave the office. I could prove I purchased a new phone.

I said I would work out my hours and submit my time sheet. I was still accused of leaving early one day because someone saw me. I explained I left the office with a colleague at a much later time and could prove I didn’t leave early (via another witness). I was then accused of having an affair with another colleague. When I denied this my accuser tried to start another rumour that this guy was gay. He wasn’t gay.

I was able to demonstrate (mostly through email records) my finish times.

I quit not long after that allegation as I was also put on a performance management plan as part of a pattern of bullying. It was so stressful and such disgusting behaviour.

I think that Op has been unfairly criticised on this thread. She stuck to her guns, involved the union and it seems to have been recognised that what was being asked of her was unreasonable.