![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impostor syndrome: the hottest of takes
Jan. 25th, 2019 02:02 pmThe phrase "impostor syndrome" has made me bristle for a long time, and I think I'm finally able to articulate why:
Say a new hire says that they feel like they don't fit in, that their skills don't feel up to snuff, or that they can't possibly learn the all things they need to do their job.
By telling them "don't worry, it's just impostor syndrome," you are not really fixing those problems. You are telling them "just tough it out; it gets better."
There are times when this makes sense. There are gun-shy new grads who just need an extra nudge to get the courage to push out their first design document. There are people who get temporarily overwhelmed when they're staring down the barrel of a 900-page spec that's about as comprehensible as Egyptian hieroglyphs. So, sure, tell those people that they are qualified and they can do it; a little nudge is fine and reasonable.
But if you're sending this message all the time, if you're saying "oh it's just impostor syndrome" with any regularity, what you're telling the person is that there's only two possible reasons for their organizational discomfort:
1: they are, in fact, bad at their job
2: it's "all in their head" and they just need to be more confident
And both of these put the responsibility squarely on them.
Which means "impostor syndrome" can be used as a dumbass excuse for all kinds of things that are actually organizational problems.
If it takes a long-ass time for the average reasonably-sharp new hire to figure out what the fuck's even going on with your team's processes, maybe you need to fucking document that shit, or have less insane processes.
If someone says they're afraid they don't know anything about Fancy Technology X, maybe offer to just pay to send them to a training on Fancy Technology X, so they have a nice Official Base Set of Knowledge to work with, instead of just muddling along for a few months.
If someone constantly feels like they don't "belong", maybe your team culture is full of domineering asshats who are constantly jockeying to be the "smartest guy in the room," and you should get them to cut that shit out.
If you're a huge company, honestly, you can probably absorb a lot of the time wasted by such organizational problems. People can get used to anything, given enough time. But why would you want that? Wouldn't you rather strive for an organization where people feel empowered and capable, rather than just offering some feel-good messages and a bunch of confused, disoriented people "toughing it out"?
End rant.
Say a new hire says that they feel like they don't fit in, that their skills don't feel up to snuff, or that they can't possibly learn the all things they need to do their job.
By telling them "don't worry, it's just impostor syndrome," you are not really fixing those problems. You are telling them "just tough it out; it gets better."
There are times when this makes sense. There are gun-shy new grads who just need an extra nudge to get the courage to push out their first design document. There are people who get temporarily overwhelmed when they're staring down the barrel of a 900-page spec that's about as comprehensible as Egyptian hieroglyphs. So, sure, tell those people that they are qualified and they can do it; a little nudge is fine and reasonable.
But if you're sending this message all the time, if you're saying "oh it's just impostor syndrome" with any regularity, what you're telling the person is that there's only two possible reasons for their organizational discomfort:
1: they are, in fact, bad at their job
2: it's "all in their head" and they just need to be more confident
And both of these put the responsibility squarely on them.
Which means "impostor syndrome" can be used as a dumbass excuse for all kinds of things that are actually organizational problems.
If it takes a long-ass time for the average reasonably-sharp new hire to figure out what the fuck's even going on with your team's processes, maybe you need to fucking document that shit, or have less insane processes.
If someone says they're afraid they don't know anything about Fancy Technology X, maybe offer to just pay to send them to a training on Fancy Technology X, so they have a nice Official Base Set of Knowledge to work with, instead of just muddling along for a few months.
If someone constantly feels like they don't "belong", maybe your team culture is full of domineering asshats who are constantly jockeying to be the "smartest guy in the room," and you should get them to cut that shit out.
If you're a huge company, honestly, you can probably absorb a lot of the time wasted by such organizational problems. People can get used to anything, given enough time. But why would you want that? Wouldn't you rather strive for an organization where people feel empowered and capable, rather than just offering some feel-good messages and a bunch of confused, disoriented people "toughing it out"?
End rant.
