Summary

The article discusses the importance of distinguishing between Imposter Syndrome and actual job performance issues, emphasizing the need for self-assessment and feedback to improve or recognize the need for a career change.

Abstract

The author shares a personal experience of struggling with job performance at a cheese shop, initially attributing feelings of inadequacy to Imposter Syndrome. After being confronted with the possibility of job loss due to not meeting sales quotas, the author realized that the issue was not Imposter Syndrome but a genuine need to improve job skills. The article provides three strategies to differentiate between Imposter Syndrome and genuine job performance problems: seeking feedback from a boss, comparing performance with colleagues, and self-reflection through listing job likes and dislikes. The author concludes that acknowledging one's shortcomings can lead to valuable personal and career growth, even if it means recognizing that one is not suited for their current job.

Opinions

The author suggests that it's easier to assume one has Imposter Syndrome than to confront the possibility of being bad at their job.
Receiving honest feedback from a boss is crucial for personal development and can either confirm or dispel doubts about job performance.
Comparing oneself to colleagues can provide insights into job performance, but it should be done with an objective and honest approach.
Writing down what one likes and dislikes about their job can reveal whether their feelings of inadequacy are due to Imposter Syndrome or a genuine mismatch with their role.
The author believes that the term "Imposter Syndrome" can sometimes be used as a form of denial, preventing individuals from addressing their true job performance issues.
Acknowledging one's weaknesses and taking action to improve or change careers is seen as a positive and necessary step for personal growth.

What If It’s Not Imposter Syndrome and You’re Just Bad at Your Job?

Three strategies to see if you just think you’re bad, or if you really are.

Not long ago, I had the extremely unpleasant experience of being told I wasn’t making my quotas, and I had a month to shape up or I’d be out of a job.

The worst thing about it was that I wasn’t surprised. Ever since I started working at the cheese shop, I’d fought the nagging insistence that I wasn’t good enough. That I didn’t really belong there. That I wasn’t as good as the other members of my team. That at any moment, I’d be discovered as a fraud and be booted out.

Then, all of a sudden, I was.

The problem with easy access to the internet is that I’d been able to read article after article about how it was just Imposter Syndrome. I was able to persuade myself that I was good at my job and did belong there — it was just this pesky Imposter Syndrome making me feel like I was a fraud.

My boss sat me down and explained that I was really crappy at selling cheese to people. And I’d have to meet a quota — selling 10 kg of cheese before Christmas — or I’d lose my job as assistant manager of the cheese shop.

I was devastated. But weirdly, I was a little relieved. I’d been stuck in limbo: feeling like I was bad at my job, but unmotivated to improve because I thought it was all in my head. Now I knew I had it, and my options were clear: buck up or get out.

It was a relief to finally understand I didn’t have Imposter Syndrome and that I just sucked at selling cheese because it launched me into action. But I wish I had picked up on it earlier. If you recognize that feeling of limbo, and you’re looking for strategies to identify if it’s Imposter Syndrome of you’re just bad at your job, read on.

How to Tell If You Have Imposter Syndrome or Not

If you feel like you’re not good at your job, you may have Imposter Syndrome — or you might actually be bad. Don’t wait for a tough meeting with your boss to force you to see the truth, but proactively diagnose or un-diagnose yourself now.

There are three excellent ways to do this:

1. Seek feedback from your boss.

The first is the scariest: Ask for tangible ways to improve. You have to open yourself up to the possibility that your gut feeling is right, and it’s certainly far more comfortable to live in denial, but sometimes ripping off the bandaid is the fastest way to feel better.

No matter what your situation is, nobody’s perfect and your boss will almost certainly be able to give you a sense of your overall performance. When I asked my boss (too late) on ways to improve, he said I should be more aggressive about selling. Obviously, that meant I was not doing well enough at the time. If I’d been more proactive, that would have been a cue that it wasn’t Imposter Syndrome I was feeling.

Conversely, if your boss only has minor tips to give you, you can be pretty sure that you’re doing a good job and you don’t need to radically improve.

2. Compare yourself with your colleagues.

This can sometimes be a bad idea because you never know what someone else’s situation is, and it can feel like comparing apples to oranges. However, if you feel like you might not be good enough at your job, comparing your performance to your colleagues’ is the best way to check.

In my case, one of the other employees at the store consistently sold more cheese. I was able to convince myself it was just luck — until I took my blinkers off. She was selling more because she was better. Being honest with your analysis will let you see if you’re falling behind, and for what reason.

If there’s a measurable performance metric you can find, that’s the best comparison. If everyone’s doing poorly, that could just be due to a recession or industry slump. But if you’re the only one falling behind, it may be a hint that your Imposter Syndrome is telling you the truth.

3. Write down a list of what you do and don’t like about your job.

This strategy is the hardest because it requires you to be mentally tough with yourself. It is easy to lie to yourself, tell yourself you’re at your dream job, pretend you’re happy the way you are. It’s much, much harder to take an honest look at your job and realize you don’t like it. And that can be the final and most damning clue that you don’t belong there.

For my job, the biggest pro was free cheese. The biggest con was actually selling it. That should have been a huge reveal, if I’d been paying attention. If your cons tally up with the job description, you may not be performing well at your job, because we tend to enjoy the things we’re good at, and be good at the things we enjoy.

Imposter Syndrome is one of these buzzwordy phrases that gets tossed around as a panacea to the working woman’s woes. “You only feel like you don’t belong,” we tell ourselves. “But we do, really!” Feeling like you have Imposter Syndrome can just a way of your mind telling you that you don’t belong somewhere. Sometimes that feeling is justified.

Being bad at your job is not necessarily a bad thing — you don’t have to be amazing at everything you do. But labeling that feeling as “Imposter Syndrome” does let you mask your feelings of inadequacy with a thin veneer of denial.

Instead of confronting the truth, and maybe taking action to help yourself, it lets you continue to flounder around in the deep end, feeling abysmal, but also making you feel crazy for believing that you don’t belong.

As long as I thought I had Imposter Syndrome, I was able to tell myself I belonged at the cheese shop, that I didn’t need to improve, and that I loved my job. As soon as I was told I quantifiably sucked, my perspective was able to shift towards reality.

It was hard. But it made me pick up new skills which I use today and it forced me to reevaluate my career choices. Both of these outcomes were valuable for me in the short and long run.

Overall, I was glad that I didn’t have Imposter Syndrome — it meant my feelings were real. If you see any similarities in your own job performance and feelings here, maybe consider that you don’t actually have Imposter Syndrome: you’re just bad at your job. That can be the start of a new, or improved career.

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