- Hillary Muhalya examines how religious favouritism can quietly influence trust, recognition and opportunities within school workplaces.
- He argues that teachers should be judged by competence, integrity and professional conduct rather than their religious affiliations.
- The commentary challenges school administrators to build inclusive staffrooms where fairness outweighs personal religious loyalties.
There is a difficult reality that many people experience in workplaces but rarely discuss openly: sometimes your religion, denomination or religious association can quietly determine how colleagues and administrators perceive you.
You may be hardworking, honest, talented and committed to your job, but the moment you are identified as belonging to a different religious group, some people begin looking at you differently.
Suddenly, you are no longer simply a colleague.
You become “one of them.”
And if the person in authority is petty, insecure or openly biased, the situation can become even worse. Instead of judging employees by performance, professionalism and integrity, such an administrator may focus his attention on people from his own religious circle while treating everyone else as outsiders.
That is not leadership.
That is favouritism disguised as administration.
When ‘my people’ become the inner circle
Every workplace has friendships. People naturally become closer to colleagues with whom they share interests, backgrounds or beliefs.
The problem begins when those relationships influence professional decisions.
Imagine an administrator who consistently gives opportunities, information, encouragement and recognition to people from his own religious circle while others are left struggling to be noticed.
One person is trusted automatically.
Another must prove themselves repeatedly.
One colleague’s mistake is forgiven.
Another’s small mistake becomes a major issue.
One employee’s contribution is celebrated.
Another’s achievement is ignored.
Eventually, the staffroom begins to understand an unwritten rule:
If you are part of the administrator’s circle, life is easier. If you are outside it, you must fight for every opportunity.
That kind of environment destroys morale.
The most dangerous administrator is the petty one.
Leadership becomes particularly toxic when an administrator is petty.
A petty administrator does not necessarily need to openly announce discrimination.
It can happen through small decisions repeated over time.
Who gets information first?
Who is consulted?
Who is recommended?
Who receives encouragement?
Who gets opportunities to represent the institution?
Whose mistakes are overlooked?
Whose mistakes are remembered?
Who gets publicly praised?
Who is constantly criticised?
These seemingly small decisions can eventually create a workplace where employees feel that merit no longer matters.
And when people begin believing that their professional future depends on belonging to the right religious or social circle, trust collapses.
A staffroom is not a religious club
A workplace should never become an extension of someone’s personal religious network.
Employees are employed because of their qualifications, skills, experience and ability to perform their duties.
A school, office or institution should therefore operate on professional principles.
If someone is an excellent teacher, their excellence should be recognised.
If someone is struggling, they should receive professional guidance.
If someone deserves an opportunity, they should receive it.
If someone violates workplace rules, they should be held accountable.
The determining factor should be conduct — not denomination.
A person’s church membership should never become a shortcut for deciding whether they are trustworthy.
Different faith does not mean bad character.
This is where prejudice becomes particularly dangerous.
People sometimes assume that because someone belongs to a different denomination, they cannot be trusted.
But religion does not automatically determine character.
There are honest people in every religious community.
There are dishonest people in every religious community.
There are hardworking people in every denomination.
There are difficult personalities in every denomination.
The truth is simple:
Character belongs to individuals, not denominations.
If someone has done something wrong, address what they did.
If someone has performed exceptionally well, recognise their achievement.
Do not manufacture a judgement about their character simply because they worship differently.
When the administrator only sees his own, the situation becomes especially painful when an administrator begins surrounding himself with people who agree with him, worship like him or belong to his preferred circle.
Eventually, the workplace can develop two categories of employees:
“Our people” and “the others.”
That division is poisonous.
It creates suspicion.
It encourages gossip.
It breeds resentment.
It discourages teamwork.
And most importantly, it makes good employees stop believing that hard work will be rewarded.
Once employees begin saying, “It doesn’t matter how hard I work; they have already decided who they prefer,” the institution has a serious leadership problem.
Teachers are watching more than we think
In schools, this problem carries an additional responsibility.
Teachers are role models.
Learners observe how adults behave. They see how teachers treat one another, how disagreements are handled and whether people who are different are respected.
How can we teach children about tolerance while demonstrating intolerance among ourselves?
How can we tell learners not to discriminate while allowing staffrooms to become places where colleagues are judged by their religious identity?
Education is not only what happens inside a classroom.
It is also what learners see adults doing.
You do not have to worship together to work together.
Professional maturity means understanding that colleagues do not have to share every belief.
You can belong to different denominations and still cooperate.
You can have different religious convictions and still respect one another.
You can disagree about faith and still recognise someone’s professional excellence.
In fact, the ability to work respectfully with people who are different from us is one of the clearest signs of maturity.
The real test of leadership is that a good administrator does not ask, “Is this person one of my people?”
A good administrator asks:
“Is this person doing their job?”
A good leader does not build a team around religious loyalty.
They build it around competence, integrity, fairness and service.
A good administrator should be able to praise someone they disagree with, promote someone outside their personal circle and correct someone they personally like.
That is leadership.
Anything else risks turning public or professional responsibility into personal preference.
The staffroom deserves better
Nobody should walk into work feeling that their religion has already determined how they will be treated.
Nobody should feel compelled to hide their denomination to avoid being stereotyped.
Nobody should have to join a particular religious circle simply to access opportunities.
And nobody in authority should use their position to create an inner circle based on personal religious preference.
The solution is not to demand that everyone believe the same thing.
The solution is to demand fairness.
Let performance speak.
Let integrity speak.
Let professionalism speak.
Let character speak.
Because a staffroom becomes stronger when people can disagree about religion but agree about their responsibility to the institution.
Your denomination should not be your workplace passport.
And if an administrator only sees value in people who belong to his own circle, then the problem is bigger than religion.
It is a leadership problem.
The best leaders do not ask, “Who belongs to me?”
They ask: “Who is capable, honest, hardworking and deserving — and how can I give everyone a fair chance?”
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That is the difference between holding a position of authority and actually knowing how to lead.
By Hillary Muhalya
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Photo caption: Hillary Muhalya, the author of this commentary, argues that religious affiliation should never determine how teachers are trusted, recognised or treated in the workplace.
