Sorry to hear that, pede. That is pretty typical of my experiences with HR as well. People need to realize that anything you say to them will go directly back to your boss, and will usually lead to retaliation. They don’t keep anything confidential and they never operate as your advocate despite what they may claim.

My advice to anyone who has an issue with their boss is to try to work it out with them directly. If that fails, you should probably start looking for another job, because you aren’t likely to win a pissing contest with your boss no matter how incompetent they are. If you really want to escalate the issue, going up the chain of command to your boss’s boss is a better option than going to HR.