Pretty sure there's a back-story
There are absolutely no details, but I'll bet it was something like this: Some employee had a habit of wearing offensive amounts of perfume. Maybe it triggered allergies, maybe it caused headaches, maybe it was just disgusting to work near her.
Someone finally complained to a manager who, rather than do the hard work of, you know, managing, decided that he couldn't do anything about it. Left with no alternative, the other employee sued.
The lower the level an issue is handled on, the more tailored the response can be. The higher you make it go, the more generic it's going to be. Low-level managers should be encouraged to solve problems at their level, and supported in their reasonable decisions.
Yes, this requires low-level managers to exercise judgment in handling issues, and mid-level managers to exercise judgment in evaluating what the low-level managers do, and so on up the line.
