The situation involves a background check for my new job. One of the roles listed is my time at Wentworth by the Sea, where I worked part-time and also completed an unpaid internship. During the internship, I gained valuable managerial experience under the mentorship of two managers. Since it was unpaid, I don’t have formal documentation like IRS records or a W-2.

I’ve provided a Google Doc that I created at the time as proof, and I’ve been in contact with Wentworth’s HR, who confirmed the details verbally. However, they’ve said they can’t provide any additional documentation, which leaves me at a bit of a standstill. My current HR team told me I might be placed on unpaid leave if this can’t be resolved, which has been extremely stressful, especially since I relocated to Tampa specifically for this job.

I’ve done everything I can, including countless calls and emails, but I’m not sure what else to do at this point. Since this is my first full-time job after college, I don’t have much experience with situations like this.

Today, I had a call with three members of the HR team to discuss the verification of my unpaid internship at Wentworth by the Sea. Unfortunately, the tone of the conversation felt unnecessarily harsh, as I was told things like “you should have had this” regarding documentation for the internship. I reiterated multiple times that it was an unpaid internship, and therefore, I do not have standard records like IRS documentation.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve reached out to multiple people at HR to provide the required information. I sent all the documents I have to the first HR contact, both via email and Teams, but she never responded—even though I could see she read my message. A week later, I received another email from her saying this was a final attempt to reach me, despite my repeated efforts to follow up and provide everything I could. They have now placed me on pay leave until the end of the week unless I can provide the information which I've left messages to my past manager and even a Facebook message to him to see if he could do that I have not gotten anything or heard anything back yet. Is this right for them to do like is it legal in the state of Florida? I'm unsure because this is my first job coming out of college. I didn't know this is how you get treated especially in such a big corporation like Citi bank.