Two employees, one chat thread - and a call to the FDA hours later
Ryan Lisowski worked at Abbott Laboratories' baby formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan, for more than eight years. A lawsuit filed May 18, 2026, in the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan, says HR ended his career over a Teams chat his coworker started - and just before he reported a product safety concern to the FDA.
Lisowski, an assistant chemist hired in December 2017, says he exchanged personal messages on Teams in February 2025 with a coworker, Abeygail Steele. The complaint quotes Steele making several odd remarks in the same thread, including one that "dead people…don't try and blow up a 6 story bomb every 5 minutes" and another about wanting to "WWE" her child "on the daily." When the tone turned uncomfortable, Steele asked to keep things work-related. Lisowski apologized and the chat ended, the filing states.
Steele then reported him. On February 17, 2025, HR called Lisowski in. Lab Department Manager Kaitlyn Cain and HR Department Manager Kelsey Sobeski questioned him at length about his messages, the complaint says. Steele, according to the filing, was not similarly questioned about hers. He was suspended later that day. Cain told him the suspension would last two weeks, the filing says. It lasted just over a year.
The timing of what happened next sits at the center of the case. After the morning meeting, Lisowski says he told Sobeski he was worried metal might be leaching into...
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