I got threatened tonight at work by a fellow co-worker, I'll call him John. It was over an incident that happened the day prior. I work in a place that has a patient confidentiality policy so, this whole story is going to lack details on purpose. I was called to an area where patients had been staying in the same quarters; I had to clean and replace some items with new items due to an illness, I'll call "X", that the person may have had. This another patient had asked John why we were doing what we were doing. John replied saying that we were doing this for precautionary measures (which I instantly thought was a good response) and that the patient may have had illness X. I quickly cut the conversation off by saying, "You shouldn't talk about that, man." John then replied in what I thought at the time was a somewhat jokingly mocking attitude "oh, I shouldn't talk about that." So that conversation was stifled and I quickly finished up to leave him to his duties. Later on that evening I asked one of my co-workers who I would classify as my on-site superior, about if I handled the situation correctly, just for some reassurance. My on-site superior said yeah, he shouldn't have said that and I did handle it right.
I get to work this evening and my on-site superior states to me that they told our Supervisor about the indecent and the Supervisor had a word with John about the incident. I told my on-site superior that they put me in kind of a precarious situation. They reassured me that what I did was right and that I didn't say anything wrong to anyone. I run into John for the first time this evening, close on the end of the shift. He said, "Hello, do you have time to talk for a minute?" I said, "I certainly do." He asked me if I had told the Supervisor anything so, I told him no, what happened was, I went to the on-site superior and asked their opinion on the matter. The on-site superior was the one who went to our Supervisor and told them about the incident. He then responded in an inflamed voice, "Wait wait wait, You talked to somebody at work about me?" I said "Yeah, I did." John said, "YOU talked to co workers, about ME?" he was then getting loud so, I interjected and said, "hey man, we're at work right now, lower your voice a bit." John said, "Oh no, I'm taking you to HR (Human resources) over this! You won't hear the last of this!" so I said, "Are you gonna have a conversation with me or not?" At that point he opened his mouth again and I knew it would be bullshit so, I started walking away. He then continued to follow me for about 20 feet harassing me from behind. I don't really remember what he was saying for those few seconds but I heard him say, "This is harassment!" so I stopped back on to him and put my arms out to my sides and said, "Man you're the one harassing me!" then continued to walk away. Later after I cooled down, and I feel like I have full authority to talk about how I just got threatened in the hallway for 10 minutes by John, I spoke to a friend I know well from work and they said that they would take John to HR over the situation. So, this is where my thoughts are on this situation: I don't think I'm in the wrong here at all. I think I responded to the initial incident properly, as well as the shouting match he tried to get me to have with him in the hallway. I think me going to my on-site superior for reassurance in the matter was right, But I think what my on-site superior did by telling our Supervisor was stupid and I would have preferred the incident to have stayed where it happened. I think what John did initially was stupid but, due to being new in the job. I also think that for John to react to the conversation my Supervisor had with him, in the manner that he did was quite excessive and very unnecessary. So if this escalates, I think I should be in the clear and that John is the one entirely at fault. Any thoughts if you've come this far?