Civil rights

Correct. Once you have complained of some type of "employment discrimination" which might include sexual harassment or racial harassment or national origin harassment then that might be a hostile work environment. That is much different from being harassed because you are not performing your job duties exactly in the manner your supervisor wishes. Harassment because of discrimination is not ok. Harassment because you are not following exactly what is being asked of you and others who do similar work is just a conflict with a supervisor which is often best resolved by moving to some new position like a transfer or new job. HR will investigate unlawful discrimination and the employee does not conduct their own investigation which could be insubordination which can result in termination. HR does not investigate just complaints about a supervisor which have no reason to believe discrimination is being alleged or just sour grapes. The latter usually resolves itself with the employee's new job voluntarily or involuntarily. So yes you may not violate instructions from HR. But if you did not say words which usually include discrimination because of .... don't expect much to happen. Start looking for other positions if the hostility is not discriminatory. Hostile does not mean generally not nice or not civil. At work it means discriminatory or it's probably nothing the law is designed to protect. That's the reality check for employment law.