I read a case recently of an employee of perfume house Estee Lauder who is in line for a £225,000 compensation payout.

The woman in question developed epilepsy, which was unrelated to work. After returning to her job she discovered her responsibilities had been cut as a result of her disability.

In addition she claims that she was subject to bullying in that she was humiliated and ridiculed by other staff who felt this was simply “banter”. Estee Lauder is accused of failing to protect her.

The claimant in this case said the Managing Director and Sales Director bullied her by calling her a “silly little girl” who “lacked a business brain.” She claims that when she returned from being diagnosed with epilepsy the Managing Director forced her into a lesser job and, when she refused, the alleged humiliation began.

I am still surprised by the amount of monies companies pay over for allowing, or for undertaking, behaviour like that set out by the claimant in this case. It can rarely be in a company’s best interests to allow this sort of thing to go unchecked. Having said that, there is clearly a difficult balance to reach between a pleasant, fun working culture and one that does not put the company at risk of claims from, some would argue oversensitive