That is an interesting story about the guy that got fired for taking a bump. I have worked before as a travel agent. Basically a travel agent books a reservation in whatever CRS (computer system) they work in, and usually, another reservation is created in whatever CRS the airline uses. That is how many times you have a record locator from the travel agent or web booking site, and then a different record locator from the airline you fly. Depending on what airline you book, we had varying access to the "airline record" as opposed to our own record. Some airlines we could access the same PNR that airline agents used, and other times only our own record that only showed what we booked, etc.

It would seem that the t/a must have done a bit of research to find out that both the pax changed their flight, and to look in to the remarks of the record to see that it was a voluntary bump instead of an invol, mechanical, weather, etc. Again depending on the airline, there would be either some notation or no notation. But often the "notation" would just be the issuance of a certificate number without really saying like "pax volunteered" etc.

My company was once working with a software company, and someone was supposed to be up in BOS by about 10AM. The person did not come, and someone from the software company called the company travel office. All that Travel knew was that the person would be coming on a later flight, and they had no idea why and said that all they know is that he is on another flight.

I would think unless you are running for public office, and e.g. someone does a background investigation to try to find some dirt on you, that it would be difficult for your company to know you got a bump. Basically they would have to have an insider contact that had access to the CRS used by the airline you fly, and again even sometimes there is not explicit documentation in the airline PNR explaining why the flight is changed especially if a handwritten bump voucher is written. And as travel agents, you did not even have access to look at standby lists or other gate systems or to look at the load or checked in count on flights. Again you would have to work for the airline to really have full access to this sort of proprietary information.