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 is for your manager to prove you were not there on that day not for you to prove that you were. Basic English Law.
Don't be bullied. And have a 30 minute freebie with an employment solicitor.

Nah sorry I would not trust you,there's more to this than you're saying,this could have been easily resolved by the person who you say knew you were there but you don't want to ask,by your bank statement but you won't do that either,by your train ticket,and obviously by your pass,Nope id be looking to sack you in all honesty

OP's employer has backed down.

Your bank statement is your personal business. You need to find a new boss, a new job and a job closer to your house. I drive ten minutes and I'm at work. Life is too short for stupid behavior. You are not unreasonable.

Give them bank statement..its needs to show your details to be official...don't see what All the fuss is about

May I ask why this bothers you So much?

This. She could have redacted the statement but no - she wants to make a huge drama. I wonder if there’s more to yhis. In a previous job I sometimes forgot my pass but nobody ever questioned mr as they could see the workboutput for those days, I met my targets (exceeded) and my co-workers could vouch for my being in the office. So I suspect there’s a back-story here and alas her team will bd stuck with her as she’s learnt hos to play the game.

OP is not the one in the wrong here. The initial and continued fault lies with a company that has a very big loophole in security and recording who is on their premises at any one time.
It's rinky dink that there is no system that records the allocation of temporary passes.
And it is weird that management chose to invade an employee's privacy instead of flagging this very clear lapse in their system. That shows a distinct lack of initiative unbecoming to managerial status.

But it is indicative of too much management in the UK where enforcing and greasy pole clinging instead of foresight and imagination are priority.
Brandishing her bank statement, redacted or not would only have been a sticking plaster over an amputation.
OP was correct to stick to her principle.
How many people have swanned around that building with no record of them being there?
It is obvious that is a conundrum that management and higher ups are not prepared to take on. Penny pinching and back covering to the highest degree that the " underlings" are meant to account for instead of better paid managers and bosses.
And this thread is overrun with the type of character that would easily slot into managerial roles that are about cushioning the boss, by any means necessary and not talent.
UK in a nutshell. Cheap, refusal to start afresh from scratch and sticking plaster policy that deflects from true accountability.
Hence the favourite " lessons have been learned" .

I'm somewhat disappointed it didn't end with OP having to redact their bank statement by printing it out and then physically cutting out the sensitive information.

Tsk all this effort to hide a subscription to the 'special' channels package 😚😉

Because why should she? She got a temp pass she sent something else why should she have to show any further personal data to prove that she was in the office?

Wouldnt it be an easy cheat to just say youve been at work and send them a fake screenshot. If they don't ask you yourself for proof, then when dodgy Dave pretends he was in work, then haven't they already set precedent of no proof needed?

Youre just being deliberately awkward to them.

Maybe next time you forget your pass, they'll be deliberately awkward back at you, and send you home to get it.

@ensayers i think if there was a consistent on going into the office but this was a one off - she from what I remember sent through a screenshot of her payment but they wanted more.

and if they did they should have a system of a name on the temporary pass being sufficient. That isn’t hard to do

What they should actually do is make entry only by permanent pass with no temporary passes available to permanent staff. I bet everyone would make damn sure they took their pass to work. This debacle might actually motivate them to do that.

That’s just stupid. The issue is not allowing temporary passes; it’s that they hand them out without recording who they gave it to.
Absolutely stupid to suggest there should be zero back up for staff who lose a pass just because the company are too stupid to keep a list of who took one.

Regardless of how stupid you might think it is I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s OP’s employer’s next move. I used to work somewhere that charged £50 for a lost pass, it wasn’t surprising that very few people ever lost one.

If i were you, i would save you the drama and just do the extrad day in the office in June or consider finding an employer who treats people like adults. This is ridiculous!!

The policy doesn't cover temporary passes.
I know, I said so. “The only policy here is 'swipe cards confirm attendance'.“ That's what that means.
Have you bothered to read the OPs follow up?
Yes, it says the managers made a decision and then changed it. Again, I said “The managers are therefore left to decide how to do so … in a policy vacuum.” And that's just what they did (not very elegantly).

WTF have I just read! I cant believe you went through all this hysteria and kerfuffle instead of just thinking 'fuck it, I'll come in one more day in June' or 'Ill find a way to redact the other stuff on my statement'. You must be a nightmare to work with 🤣

Can you imagine....
Colleague: could you email over those notes OP?
OP: (in a big long email that probably took about 5 min to write): Im afraid I cant, Colleague, as it is now 5.03pm. This will need to wait until tomorrow morning. I have made a note of it in my diary.

Imagine working for a company who instead of trusting their employee over ONE office day, they expect them to jump through hoops to provide evidence of their location. Red flag to me, I'd be leaving

I think both the company and the employee sound unappealing

@Jigaliga not really. I'd not be happy to have bank statements etc about an office day. Believe me or don't believe me. It's not like they are even questioning if worked was performed on the day or not, just where the employee was sat during that day. I couldn't ever imagine working for an employer with so little trust and respect for employees

What do you mean "not really"? I was giving my personal opinion

My bank statements are a list of asda and amazon purchases, but I still would absolutely not let my employer see them. Nobody should have to divulge personal information to their employer, especially to make up for the fact that the company is incapable of keeping a record of who is in their office on any given day.

But they'd then have to trust EVERY employee over EVERY office day. They can't set a precedent for one and not for others.