Role Play Training

Correct answers are in bold.

Business Role Play
Bill is a strong performer and you are considering him for a promotion. As his supervisor, you meet to discuss the promotion, and he tells you he is HIV-positive. He really likes his job and tells you that he wants the promotion. But he needs occasional time off for medical appointments and he's been paying for all medical bills out of his own pocket to avoid jeopardizing his job and his insurance coverage. Bill is afraid that if other people find out he has HIV/AIDS they will object to working with him. He requests that you keep his HIV/AIDS diagnosis confidential.

1. To whom, if anyone, are you required to report Bill's HIV/AIDS status?
   1. Your boss
   2. Bill's co-workers
   3. Your company's health insurance policy
   4. No one

2. What laws, if any, protect Bill in the workplace?
   1. ADA
   2. HIPAA
   3. COBRA
   4. All of the above

3. As Bill's supervisor, what kind of reasonable accommodation(s) should you provide/implement at the workplace?
   1. A separate bathroom
   2. A separate water fountain
   3. A system for accommodating Bill's medical appointments
   4. All of the above

Family Role Play
Early one morning, 10-year old Janie asked her parents how she would know when she's ready to have sex, since she heard other kids at school talking about it. In search of information, Robert turned to his company's wellness program and decided to attend a seminar dedicated to creating a "lifelong dialogue" with one's children about difficult issues such as sex and sexuality that focused on the skills necessary for communicating with children. Robert and his wife, Karen, later sat with Janie to talk about her questions and to assure her that she should always feel comfortable seeking out their advice about these kinds of issues.

1. What might Janie really be asking?
   1. Is it ok for me to have sex now since my friends are talking about "doing it" and the boys are teasing me about sex?
   2. Is it ok to talk to you (my parents) about sex and my sexual feelings?
   3. What do my parents think about sex and will they help me understand sex and sexuality so I can make the right decisions about sex?
   4. All of the above
   5. None of the above

2. What are some positive messages Robert and Karen could express to Janie about coming to them with questions about sex?
   1. You are too young to be thinking about sex.
   2. Ask your friends about sex since they are your age and have a similar perspective on sex.
   3. We always encourage our children to talk to us about sex and sexuality so we can share our family's values.
   4. Answering questions about sex only leads to sexual activity.

3. What are some reasons Robert and Karen would want to talk to Janie about sex and sexuality?
   1. To provide their guidance in sexual decision-making and to help her avoid emotional and physical risks including HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and unwanted pregnancy.
   2. To clarify the family's values about sex and sexuality.
   3. To make sure Janie has accurate information and understands the information.
   4. All of the above

4. What are some reasons why parents should talk to children about sex and sexuality?
   1. Children want to hear information from their parents about sex and sexuality and be able to talk to them about these complex and important issues.
   2. Ongoing parent-child communication increases the "comfort level" for discussion of "difficult subjects" such as sex and sexuality, and decreases the potential of sexual risk taking by children.
   3. It is preferable for children to get answers about sex and sexuality from their parents who can establish and reinforce their family values.
   4. All of the above

International Role Play
You are a manager of an automotive plant in southern Africa, which is a branch of a U.S.-based multinational company. An increasing number of the workforce is infected with HIV, and several are seriously ill. Other members of the workforce are becoming anxious about working alongside infected people. They also are growing resentful about absenteeism and feel that these infected workers are not "pulling their weight." At the same you have been approached by a local People Living with HIV/AIDS group, which feels that the plant is not doing enough for its workers and wants it to do more.

1. What should you consider when addressing the unease of your workforce?
   1. The bottom line — excessive absenteeism should be responded to with layoffs
   2. The need to educate your entire workforce on HIV/AIDS
   3. The benefit to the organization of retaining the workforce
   4. B and C only

2. What can you do to improve the care and support offered to your employees living with HIV/AIDS?
   1. Provide confidential, voluntary counseling and testing
   2. Establish health-care services at the workplace or provide information about the availability of services outside the workplace
   3. Provide information and training for at-home caregivers
   4. Look for public-private partnership opportunities to join programs for anti-retroviral treatments
   5. All of the above

3. Employers can demonstrate their commitment to providing equal treatment to employees with HIV/AIDS by:
   1. Implementing a written policy of HIV/AIDS
   2. Moving an HIV-positive employee's office away from other employees
   3. Supporting HIV-positive employees with flexible work schedules as they would for any other employee who is chronically disabled
   4. Requiring an HIV-positive employee to disclose his/her status to co-workers
   5. A and C only

Labor Role Play
A phone installer refused an assignment in an area of a large city known as a "gay district." He was convinced that most gay men were infected with the AIDS virus and didn't want to go into their homes and touch their phones.

Management believed that the worker had no basis for the fear or for his insubordination and suspended the telephone installer for refusing to do his job. The phone installer went to the shop steward with his suspension notice.

1. What are some ways you can become infected with HIV?
   1. Touching items that belong to gay people
   2. Shaking hands with an infected person
   3. Engaging in sexual contact with an infected person
   4. All of the above

2. What are some of the shop steward's concerns?
   1. He must defend a member's job
   2. Union members are being forced to work in "gay areas"
   3. Union members are misinformed about HIV/AIDS
   4. All of the above
   5. A and C only

3. What are some courses of action the steward could work with management to implement?
   1. Not providing phone service in gay neighborhoods
   2. Requiring that only gay union members service gay neighborhoods
   3. Developing an HIV/AIDS education program for the company

Your Results

All correct:		Congratulations! You received a perfect score!
1-4 incorrect answers:		You are knowledgeable about some of the issues of HIV/AIDS in the workplace, but could benefit from more information.
5-8 incorrect answers:		You may understand some "bigger picture" issues about HIV/AIDS but need more information about HIV/AIDS in the workplace.
9-13 incorrect answers:		You need to learn basic issues about HIV/AIDS as well as how HIV/AIDS affects the workplace.

For more information, visit the following sections:

• HIV and The Law

• Building Your Program

• HIV/AIDS Workplace Tools

• FAQs

Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention