Respect at Work: Diversity & Inclusion

Two identical CVs with different names get different scores, and the reviewer never notices. The broad term?

• Deliberate favouritism
• Unconscious bias
• Tokenism
• Open prejudice

Answer: Unconscious bias. Hidden biases steer decisions we believe are neutral. Noticing them is step one.

One colleague gets a screen reader, another a standing desk. Different support, same fair shot. That's…?

• Equality
• Tokenism
• Equity
• Assimilation

Answer: Equity. Equality gives everyone the same; equity adjusts the support so everyone gets a fair shot.

In a meeting, a colleague mimics a teammate's accent for laughs. Best bystander move?

• Laugh along to keep it light
• Speak up calmly or check in with them
• Ignore it, it's only a joke
• Post about it on social media

Answer: Speak up calmly or check in with them. A calm word from a bystander sets the norm and backs the person targeted.

"You speak such good English!" said to a colleague born and raised in India. Small, maybe meant kindly. The term?

• Constructive feedback
• Banter
• Microaggression
• Mentoring

Answer: Microaggression. Often unintended, but slights like this pile up and wear people down.

The 1997 guidelines behind the POSH Act, 2013 came from which Supreme Court case?

• Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala
• Shah Bano case
• Maneka Gandhi v Union of India
• Vishaka v State of Rajasthan

Answer: Vishaka v State of Rajasthan. The Vishaka guidelines covered workplace harassment until Parliament passed POSH.

Your firm has 40 employees. Under the POSH Act, which body must it set up to hear harassment complaints?

• A Local Committee
• A Works Committee
• An Internal Committee
• An Ethics Board

Answer: An Internal Committee. Workplaces with 10 or more employees need an Internal Committee; smaller ones go to the district's Local Committee.

Women and minorities can see the top jobs but keep hitting an invisible barrier. Its name?

• Glass cliff
• Sticky floor
• Glass ceiling
• Broken rung

Answer: Glass ceiling. The glass ceiling. Its cousin, the glass cliff, is being promoted only when things are already failing.

When "culture fit" quietly comes to mean "like me" in hiring, which bias is at work?

• Affinity bias
• Confirmation bias
• Anchoring bias
• Recency bias

Answer: Affinity bias. Affinity bias is favouring people who remind us of ourselves. It creeps into hiring and promotions unless panels use clear criteria.

Which of these phrases do most disability style guides recommend when you need to mention a colleague's mobility aid?

• Wheelchair-bound
• Confined to a wheelchair
• Suffering from paralysis
• A wheelchair user

Answer: A wheelchair user. For many people a wheelchair means freedom to move, not confinement. If you know how someone describes themselves, follow their lead.

Which Supreme Court judgment first recognised transgender people as a "third gender"?

• Indra Sawhney v Union of India
• NALSA v Union of India
• Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India
• K.S. Puttaswamy v Union of India

Answer: NALSA v Union of India. NALSA (2014) affirmed the right to self-identify gender. Navtej Johar (2018) decriminalised homosexuality.

Under the POSH Act, a sexual harassment complaint should normally be made within how long of the incident?

• Three months
• One week
• One year
• Five years

Answer: Three months. The Internal Committee can extend this by another three months, with reasons in writing, if something stopped the woman from complaining sooner.

Under India's labour law, how many weeks of paid maternity leave can an eligible woman employee get for her first child?

• 12 weeks
• 26 weeks
• 18 weeks
• 52 weeks

Answer: 26 weeks. The 2017 amendment raised it from 12 to 26 weeks, and the Code on Social Security, 2020 keeps that. From the third child it is 12 weeks.

Which is a gender-neutral word for the person who runs a meeting?

• Chairperson
• Chairman
• Headman
• Foreman

Answer: Chairperson. UN and UN Women language guidelines suggest chair or chairperson in place of chairman.

A candidate went to a top college, so the panel rates everything else about her highly too. Which bias is this?

• Horn effect
• Recency bias
• Groupthink
• Halo effect

Answer: Halo effect. One shining trait colours the whole judgement. Psychologist Edward Thorndike named it in 1920; the horn effect is the negative version.

A colleague with a hearing impairment gets live captions in meetings and agendas in writing beforehand. What does India's disability law call such adjustments?

• Reasonable accommodation
• Special favour
• Affirmative quota
• Positive discrimination

Answer: Reasonable accommodation. The RPwD Act requires necessary changes that don't impose an undue burden, and denying them counts as discrimination.