Do I have a legal retaliation claim?
I work in customer service, inbound/outbound calls, emails, chats and text, for a very large well known company. Our team had lost 2 team members to different departments, and 1 that went on maternity leave. This left 3 lower level employees and 2 upper levels. The 2 upper level employees had low priority in getting calls, which resulted in the 3 remaining team members getting back to back calls for months.
This became very stressful on our mental health, and during a team meeting, I cited our lower service level over a period of time and the support needed for the upper level employees, asking for relief. I was brushed off saying the service level averaged out YTD and the manager refused to provide the actual YTD score. I admittedly became a little teary eyed, and thd meeting was cut shortly after.
Another day, the manager said that all employees were to be on phones in the group chat. One upper level employees was doing something else, I stated in chat saying we were all supposed to be on phones. The manager jumped in saying that he told them to do something else not even minutes saying everyone was supposed to be on phones. I said something along the lines saying no worries, just wanted to make sure we were communicating things.
Less that an hour later, I was approached by the manager asking if I was interested in going on a last minute project for a different department. Other leadership stated it's where ghe company needed me. I do want to note, that I had expressed interest in this department in the past. I asked them for more details and said that I would let them know by end of day. I was never given any details on the project and within 10 minutes or so of being asked, the manager for the project reached out, saying that they were giving me access to their systems. So they were basically telling me, this is what I'm doing, not asking.
Later the manager met with me to take me to where I would be working on the project. I started the next day. I was given very minimal guidance reaching out to partners daily to ensure smooth operations and insight for that department. At the time. I felt like I was being set up for failure, and felt lkke this was a test to see if the team i was leaving could run even leaner. I was told this would last for 1 month before returning to my original team. In that last week, I had been told by the head of that department that the project would be extending another month. After another month, I still wasn't being told when it would end. A couple of weeks later I was told by leadership that my manager had been terminated.
10 days after finding out that, I received my worst performance review in the 5+ years working for the company. This seemed retaliatory to asking for support in the team meeting and my comment in chat about communicating properly prior to going on project, and damaged any career progression within the company. It attacked more so my personality vs any real metrics. The manager had only been over me 2 months for the year I was being reviewed for and canceled our professional 1:1 meetings both times. Also, our Jan - March meetings were canceled due to being backlogged and understaffed. I do not believe the manager was qualified to review me, as my prior manager to them was still on the team. I did have a 1:1 meeting with my manager before they were terminated. They asked where I saw myself going within the company and if my project team was as "fun" as them. I told them I would like to grow within the team I had been on project with. I felt the "fun" question was to discouage me from leaving.
Also noting another team member also received their lowest score with the company after advocating for team improvements.
As far as my performance review, I had messaged the director, who became my inherited manager, saying I was disappointed in my score. They set a date to go over the review, which would eventually become the date of my set return to my team. The week before my return, I asked the director, along with other managers on the team to confirm changes in processes on the team to confirm I was up to date. The chat was friendly, but short. I do need to mention that the team would be implementing automated AI assistance to help with the high workload. This was not to begin until another month.
I had planned on bringing up this retaliation claim to HR, but before I could, the day before my return to my team, I was invited to a "touch point" meeting by senior leadership where I was met by HR, where I was told my position was being eliminated due to "organizational changes." They claimed it had nothing to do with my performance and was strictly business restructure. I was told, I was eligible for rehire within the company, but that was damaged with the review. My termination came 10 days after letting the director know I was disappointed in my score. I think my performance meeting was moved out, knowing I would be terminated before it could happen or the HR claim could be submitted. My fellow team mate who had also been given a loww performance score was also terminated that day.
I feel targeted. So my question, is this personal, legal or shady business practices?