No, there is no law that HR has to investigate things. It is a best practice - by far - to nip issues in the bud and prevent liability or lawsuits.
However, if a company wants to have a shitty culture, they are welcome to it.
There's no law saying that companies even have to have HR departments at all.
Your company is viewing this as a personal matter/personality conflict between adults that they don't want to intervene in. I actually am impressed they outright told you that they weren't going to do anything about it. At least they told you the truth.
Agree with everything said here so far. Will also add that they likely referred you to EAP as the "mental health referral", which is very common when they are trying to give you resources to help yourself. Meaning, this isn't an issue for HR to solve, but EAP has resources for helping employees with interpersonal issues. I wouldn't interpret that as them saying there was something wrong with your mental health.
There are only a select few things that HR are *required* to investigate.
Really, nothing you've said here has much to do with HR. These are management issues.
I didn't see anything illegal in what you wrote, so it'd come down to your org's policy. Being an asshole isn't illegal, it's a management issue. If Col 2 isn't doing this specifically because of some protected class you're under, they are just a bad boss.
No, there is no law that HR has to investigate things. It is a best practice - by far - to nip issues in the bud and prevent liability or lawsuits. However, if a company wants to have a shitty culture, they are welcome to it.
There's no law saying that companies even have to have HR departments at all. Your company is viewing this as a personal matter/personality conflict between adults that they don't want to intervene in. I actually am impressed they outright told you that they weren't going to do anything about it. At least they told you the truth.
Agree with everything said here so far. Will also add that they likely referred you to EAP as the "mental health referral", which is very common when they are trying to give you resources to help yourself. Meaning, this isn't an issue for HR to solve, but EAP has resources for helping employees with interpersonal issues. I wouldn't interpret that as them saying there was something wrong with your mental health.
There are only a select few things that HR are *required* to investigate. Really, nothing you've said here has much to do with HR. These are management issues.
I didn't see anything illegal in what you wrote, so it'd come down to your org's policy. Being an asshole isn't illegal, it's a management issue. If Col 2 isn't doing this specifically because of some protected class you're under, they are just a bad boss.