I agree with some of the the other points in this article that it's intentionally vague, and missing a lot of details. What I do notice is that HR specifically

I agree with some of the the other points in this article that it's intentionally vague, and missing a lot of details. What I do notice is that HR specifically directed author to have no further contact with the other employee. The author obviously violated that both directly, and indirectly. As much as the author may feel like HR treated them unfairly, he should remember something we all tend to forget: HR is not your friend. They are there to protect the company, not you.