MASUUMI JUMA: Mudslinging Your Supervisor Is Career Suicide in Slow Motion

While at the closure of the 3-day capacity-building workshop of the commissioners office of the President, RDC/RCCs, DRDC/DRCCs, DISOs and Assistant RDC/RCCs from Buganda Region at Collins Hotel on Friday, 12th June, 2026, the Minister for the Presidency, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda, called it out directly that some RDCs were previously engaged in writing negative reports against her office, ignoring monitoring government programmes and concerns affecting the local person, an act she described as “disrespect, betrayal and insubordination.”

In every institution, the chain of command is not just hierarchy for its own sake. It is the nervous system that keeps the body functioning. When a subordinate resorts to mudslinging and betrayal against a supervisor, they are not exposing weakness. They are severing their own nerve endings.

Disagreement is healthy: reporting misconduct through proper channels is duty. But spreading negative reports, half-truths, or outright fabrications about your boss to settle scores or gain favour elsewhere is different. It is mudslinging, and mud sticks to both parties.

As Booker T. Washington said, _“You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.”_ When you drag your supervisor’s name through the mud, you climb into the trench with them. The organisation remembers who threw the first handful.

If you throw mud, you lose ground. “Mudslinging is the last resort of those who have no facts.”

Betraying a supervisor is not just disloyalty to a person. It is a breach of the trust that got you the job in the first place. You were appointed to extend your supervisor’s eyes, ears, and hands into the field. Turning those same tools against them is insubordination by design.

Publilius Syrus put it bluntly: _“A tongue prone to slander is the proof of a depraved mind.”_ And once you’re branded as someone who bites the hand that appoints you, no future boss will fully trust you. _“Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.”_ Money lost can be recovered. A reputation for betrayal can’t.

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a traitor. Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” — Arthur Miller

Disrespect is the weapon of the weak.

The real casualty is service delivery; offices that normalise backstabbing don’t get more accountable. They get paralysed. The time spent writing negative dossiers against your supervisors should be spent on the Parish Development Model, service delivery, or citizen concerns. As the saying goes, _“When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”_ In this case, the grass is the wananchi.

Proverbs 30:17: “The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.”

“Insubordination is not a sign of strength. It is a symptom of a lack of discipline.” _ — Colin Powell

Misconduct by a subordinate reflects first on the supervisor, then destroys the subordinate.

There is a right way to raise issues. If a supervisor is corrupt, absentee, or incompetent, there are audits, disciplinary committees, and appointing authorities.

WhatsApp groups, corridors, and anonymous petitions are not. _“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak to your supervisor; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”_ — Winston Churchill.

“He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. ”_ — Aristotle

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

Leadership is a contract of mutual respect. You can outgrow a supervisor; you can even succeed them, but you should never sabotage them. As John Wooden warned, “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. ”_ Mudslinging reveals character.

Choose discipline over drama. If you cannot serve under someone, resign and compete honourably. But don’t become the porcupine that turns its quills inward. The office will move on, the work will still be demanded, and the stain of betrayal will outlast any temporary win you thought you scored.

Because in the end, _“The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools is folly.”_ — Proverbs 14:24

Loyalty to a supervisor is not slavery. It is the price of order.