I just learnt that my colleague consults witchdoctors!

Q. Last week, my desk mate at work was feeling unwell. He casually mentioned that he would be going upcountry over the weekend to consult a witchdoctor, and I began to worry about whether I should keep our friendship, knowing that we have an employee medical cover in our organisation. Is this a matter I should accept as part of diversity or be cautious about as a colleague? 

A lot has been written about diversity at work and its potential to contribute to organisational performance.

Embracing diversity entails harnessing and drawing value from differences amongst employees rather than using them as tools of segregation especially for those who depart from common organisational tendencies.

The differences could include gender, race, religious background, personality, thinking styles, even mode of dressing.

While promotion of diversity proffers the freedom to express one’s individuality, it, however, demands responsibility for tolerating others who share different world views.

Diversity cannot, though, be stretched beyond the threshold where a person’s expression of freedom adversely interferes with the rights of others as this would indeed be a recipe for chaos.

Individual beliefs concerning spirituality differ. Whether or not witchdoctors reverse the effects of spells instigated by witchcraft, people tend to approach any matters pertaining to sorcery with dread as it is culturally attributed to a dark spiritual realm often thought to gestate evil.

Your anxiety is therefore understandable as you probably wonder what your colleague’s consultation with a witchdoctor implies about his life and what it portends for those who interact closely with him at work.

To the extent that your desk mate does not subject you to his remedies for your ailments or prescribe suspicious potions for the promotion of your wellbeing, perhaps you need not be alarmed. If he had never mentioned his preferred solution for his condition, would you have had qualms regarding your friendship?

Some differences amongst colleagues are admittedly easier to tolerate than others, but consider that there is much we may not know about our colleagues.

Clad in cloaks of professionalism and social graces, it is not always possible to tell which colleagues surreptitiously dabble in practices we may find unsettling.