I think this guy is deliberately trying to screw us over so he would not announce it on social media channels. I think he would secretely create a useless forked coin that he uses to pay us with while keep the actual coin for himself. I have worked with him in the same office for a year, he is an asshole that would do something like this.
I am not talking about ERC20 itself, this is a ERC20 compatible altcoin. I can't tell you the name because he will find out.
I think my questions is if there is something about the contract we can see publicaly that would give the game away?
You can ask them the contract address its public or search it in etherscan you can find it there .
There is no hard fork in token if they have a problem in the ERC20 tokens then they can easily make another one then distribute that to members.