Workplace question Michigan
employment attorney Colorado Aug 11, 2026
Location: Michigan (Remote) Corporate Headquarters: Texas Former Team Location: Colorado I am an Engineer facing what seems like sudden, targeted performance manufacturing, career blocking, and aggressive knowledge extraction after a company acquisition. This directly follows a complaint regarding a hostile work environment and hate imagery. I am the only employee left from my original legacy team. Background & Performance History: Before the acquisition, I consistently received "Exceeds Expectations" and "Significantly Exceeds Expectations" ratings. I have the highest performance numbers on the team, train almost all new hires, build templates and SOPs, and handle recommend tuning. I am the primary face with the deepest knowledge for a high profile client. I built a write up format with this client to meet their expectations. Timeline of Key Events: Late 2025 / Early 2026 - a couple of legacy employees (myself included) verbally voiced serious concerns to the VP, Director, and Manager regarding the constant use of Pepe the Frog on company platforms. It became a significant internal issue. Early 2026 - shortly after the complaint, every person from Colorado who joined me in voicing concerns was let go. I am the only one left. May 2026 -my current manager dropped my rating to "Solid Contributor," blaming the manager that was let go for the feedback. I never received feedback from any of the former management and have not really gotten any from the new management. In my review - under areas to develop, the review states I need to "demonstrate consistent transparency in communication proactively sharing relevant information and clarifying expectations" and "show respect for diverse perspectives by actively listening and engaging with others ideas." When I do proactively share relevant information or offer technical insights in team settings, management actively ignores or overrides me. Also, I was introduced to the GRC lead by the new director and told to reach out for career growth, my direct outreach to the GRC lead was read and completely unanswered, contradicting the company's stated focus on open communication. My manager recently targeted my write ups by picking apart known junk, which no one in the team spend time on. Also, the written review states "at the end of 2025 I decided to make her a shift lead adding to the responsibilities of the job she handles so well" and notes that I have "accepted the role as leader among the team without considering pay or title changes." In reality, I was never given a promotion, a title change, or a pay increase. They are holding me to the standard of a lead role that they refuse to officially give me or pay me for. July of this year I applied for two open Senior positions that mirror the daily duties I am already performing. HR reached out to schedule an interview, and sent a meeting invite, I accepted for my day off because I just wanted the interview!! I joined the meeting and waited the entire scheduled duration. At the 7 minute mark, I messaged "good afternoon" in the meeting chat. At the 10 minute mark, I messaged the HR recruiter regarding the interviewer's absence. Halfway through the scheduled time, the interviewer messaged me from their private user account, not the meeting chat, saying they were "so sorry" we couldn't meet today. I immediately responded and said I could still meet right then since the meeting block was only half over. They never responded. The recruiter then emailed both of us saying that HR does not schedule internal interviews because staff can communicate via Teams. I sent a new meeting reschedule request and messaged the interviewer directly in Teams to notify them of the request. It was completely ignored. I sent a second reschedule request, which was also entirely ignored. I sent a third request and cc'd HR and very early this morning I got a message on teams from the interviewer asking what the earliest I can be ready today or tomorrow is. I saw the message when I logged in to work today and responded that I could be ready in a few minutes or 7am tomorrow, again on my requested day off. I have heard nothing back. It feels like I'm being blocked from any career growth while management is trying to extract my specialized, historical client relationship knowledge. My partner thinks I should get a lawyer, but I think I just work for a crappy company that is trying to get me to leave or make enough paper trail to let me go. Is this something I could/should talk to a lawyer about? Thank you.
