Throwaway account. I don't have friends on Reddit, but still a little paranoid anyway.
I'm in research in the pharma industry, and with research comes with mistakes. It happens, we get pissy about it, our bosses get pissy about it, but we repeat our shit and move on.
One of my coworkers who is fairly new (less than one year), made a mistake and told their supervisor during a project update. The supervisor was upset and mimicked a choking motion around my coworker's neck. No touching occured, but their hands were near my coworker's neck, and made them incredibly uncomfortable.
I'm so mad, and I don't know what to do. I've discussed this with other people and thought about going to HR, but decades of history with this company has shown that because there is no proof, nothing is done. There are no ramifications, and the employee is back at the mercy of their supervisors who continue to make their lives miserable until the employees quit. This is different coworkers with different supervisors with similar problems. Not everyone can just quit before finding another job, and it could take months before people find something.
This is such BS. Make sure you look out for you and your's before any company's margins. Fuck man.