HR asks employee to document everything a toxic coworker does just to use it against him, as it was concerning his focus in interpersonal conflicts: ‘Now they’re using my own records to paint me as the problem’

This seems like a setup as old as time. 

If you were having a confrontational relationship with a coworker at your job and you took it up to human resources with the hope that everything would get fixed, and then they told you that you needed to keep a record of all the issues you encounter with this person, only to show it to them and hear back that maybe you are the problem for being too invested in interpersonal conflict to keep a record, how would you react? This story is not foreign to u/AcanthisittaNew3927, who had to go through this exact problem and now doesn’t know how to handle it. If he has a target on his back and needs to start looking for a job urgently, or can he just pretend that nothing happened? 

In my opinion, he needs to go. If he can run, I would suggest that. In all seriousness, this seems like a setup. They told him to keep a record only so they had proof, a fake one, that he was obsessed with this issue or even with this coworker. It is crazy, but for some reason or another, the human resources team has a preference for the other coworker. That’s why they are flipping things to make this person look bad and the toxic coworker look good. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but from my point of view, this was all a setup. He needs to find a new job and get out. He has a target on his back, and sooner or later they are going to fire him. Now they have a reason, a fake one, to do so. 

To conclude, run, boy, run. This seems like a setup to me. I’m not sure if everyone is reading into it as I’m doing. But I’m hoping you are. If not, I’m probably insane. The thing is, if this wasn’t a setup, then what was it? Why tell him to document everything if it would then look bad on the person who complained in the first place about the toxic coworker? This seems like a well-executed setup. In any case, I would definitely look into other jobs now.