When Workplace Bonds Undermine Accountability: A Reflection on Work Culture in Rwanda

​In many Rwandan workplaces, the office is more than a place of employment—it is a shared life space.

We share stories, advice, struggles, laughter, and sometimes even personal burdens. We build strong relationships. We learn to read each other’s emotions. Our culture emphasizes unity, care, and togetherness. When things are going well, this system feels powerful and human.

But this same strength can quietly become a weakness.

When Relationships Replace Responsibility

Because of the bonds we create at work, small mistakes are often ignored or tolerated. Colleagues coach each other informally, cover for one another, or delay tough conversations in the name of harmony. Over time, this turns into a pattern—poor performance is normalized, and accountability weakens.

This is not kindness; it is a leadership failure.

True leadership is not about protecting comfort. It is about protecting standards.

When individuals develop lazy attitudes or consistently underperform, but the team keeps compensating for them, the cost is shared by everyone. Deadlines slip, trust erodes, and high performers begin to feel frustrated or unvalued.

The Turning Point: When a Serious Mistake Happens

Eventually, something goes wrong—something too big to ignore.

At that moment, everyone agrees: “We must help the colleague responsible.”

That instinct is human and correct.

But this is also where the workplace often fractures.

The same people who previously ignored small issues now distance themselves. Silence replaces support. The individual at fault feels exposed, betrayed, and targeted. Instead of owning the mistake, they build defenses—blaming favoritism, jealousy, unfair treatment, or selective accountability.

What follows is not problem-solving, but conflict.

How Trust Turns Into Suspicion

Poor accountability does not protect people—it harms them.

When performance expectations are unclear or inconsistently enforced:

• Trust turns into suspicion
• Feedback feels like an attack
• Good attitudes deteriorate
• Teams become emotionally unsafe

In many cases, people struggle to admit wrongdoing, especially when responsibility can be shared or shifted. This is not unique to Rwanda, but cultural emphasis on harmony can make it harder to confront issues directly.

Leadership Is Where It Hurts Most

This environment is often easiest for those who are not responsible for others.

But for leaders—those required to hold teams accountable—it becomes exhausting and emotionally draining.

Leadership in such settings is misunderstood. Enforcing standards is seen as betrayal. Correcting behavior is seen as hatred. Objectivity is confused with cruelty.

Yet avoiding accountability does not make a workplace humane—it makes it fragile.

A Better Way Forward

Professional workplaces must be built on performance, ethics, and clear expectations, not on personal stories or emotional alliances.

This does not mean removing empathy. It means balancing empathy with responsibility.

What can help:

• Clear roles and measurable expectations
• Regular, honest feedback—not only when things go wrong
• Equal accountability, regardless of relationships
• Separating personal bonds from professional obligations
• Encouraging ownership of mistakes without humiliation

Accountability done well protects everyone. It prevents public blame, emotional breakdowns, and broken trust.

Final Thought

Strong relationships at work are valuable—but they should never replace accountability.

When we tolerate underperformance in the name of peace, we delay conflict—but we also magnify its impact.

If we truly care about our colleagues, teams, and organizations, we must stop normalizing poor accountability. It ruins morale, trust, and growth for everyone involved.

Let’s build workplaces where care and responsibility coexist.

— End