My shoulder still aches from how I slept last night, a persistent, dull throb that reminds me of the deeper, more insidious ache many professionals carry around, mistaking it for a personal failing. It’s a tension that coils in the stomach, tightens the jaw, and whispers doubts: *Am I truly capable? Do I belong here?*

We’ve been handed a convenient label for this feeling: Imposter Syndrome.

And for years, I bought into it, hook, line, and sinker. I’d read the articles, nod along to the self-help gurus, and try to ‘fix’ my internal dialogue. I’d tell myself, *I am competent, I deserve to be here.* But the ache persisted. It wasn’t until I saw it unfold countless times with others, brilliant people caught in nonsensical systems, that I started to question the diagnosis itself. What if this wasn’t a personal pathology at all, but a perfectly rational response to an irrational world?

The Watch Assembler’s Dilemma

Consider Iris M.K., a watch movement assembler I knew. Her hands, calloused and precise, could coax life into mechanisms smaller than a grain of rice. Every tiny gear, every microscopic screw, found its place under her patient gaze. She didn’t just assemble; she understood the rhythm of time itself. When her company was acquired and she transitioned to a new team tasked with ‘optimizing’ a legacy product, the first thing they did was hand her a new, convoluted protocol that made no logical sense. It was documented poorly, rife with contradictions, and seemed designed by someone who’d never actually *seen* a watch movement.

Iris, with her unparalleled expertise, gently questioned it. ‘But if we place this component before that,’ she’d explain, ‘the kinetic energy transfer will be off by 8 milliseconds, leading to premature wear.’ Her new supervisor, a fresh MBA graduate, simply smiled and said, ‘That’s just how we do things now, Iris. It’s part of the new synergy. Don’t let imposter syndrome get to you; you’re great!’

Imposter syndrome? Iris, who could diagnose a faulty escapement just by sound, was suddenly made to feel inadequate for having a superior understanding of physics and engineering. The ache that started to form in her, that feeling of being out of place, wasn’t because she doubted her skill. It was because the environment was actively undermining it, forcing her to abandon proven logic for arbitrary, ill-conceived mandates. This wasn’t a flaw in her perception; it was a glaring flaw in the process, wrapped up in a pretty psychological bow to deflect accountability.

The Corporate Gaslighting Maneuver

This happens all the time. A new hire, brimming with innovative ideas, is told to follow a process that’s clearly inefficient, outdated, or outright counterproductive. When they voice concerns, or even just internally stew over the absurdity, the convenient label of ‘imposter syndrome’ gets trotted out. It’s a brilliant maneuver, really. By medicalizing a systemic issue as an individual psychological failing, organizations cleverly sidestep their own accountability for confusing processes, poor communication, and often, profoundly exclusionary cultures. Why fix the broken gear when you can just tell the watchmaker she’s imagining the ticking?

It’s not just about obvious process flaws. It’s about unspoken rules, opaque decision-making, and the casual dismissal of lived experience. Think about the company that hires a diverse candidate for their unique perspective, then penalizes them, subtly or overtly, for not conforming to the established, homogenous way of thinking. Or the leadership team that preaches transparency but makes every critical decision behind closed doors, leaving their staff to guess at the rationale, making them feel perpetually out of the loop and questioning their own understanding.

The Real Culprit: Environmental Factors

The real issue, 8 times out of 10, isn’t that you feel like an imposter. It’s that the environment *makes* you feel like an imposter. It’s an environment that lacks clarity, that thrives on ambiguity, where instructions are vague and expectations are shifting sands. If critical information is locked away in siloed departments, or if verbal instructions are consistently muddled, how can anyone feel truly confident? Sometimes, simply capturing those spoken words and turning them into accessible, searchable text can dissolve much of that unnecessary fog. Having explicit, written documentation or easily digestible knowledge bases could save 238 hours of confusion for every single team member struggling to parse out the ‘right’ way.

This isn’t to say self-doubt never exists. Of course it does. We all have moments where we second-guess ourselves. But there’s a fundamental difference between a transient wobble in confidence and a persistent, gnawing feeling of inadequacy that only manifests in specific, dysfunctional contexts. True confidence flourishes in environments of psychological safety, clear expectations, and genuine support. If you’re consistently feeling like an imposter, perhaps it’s time to stop looking inward for a cure and start looking outward for the cause. The problem might just be wearing a badge that says ‘corporate culture’.

The Path Forward: Systems, Not Self-Affirmation

I’ve seen this pattern repeat itself over and over again. A project delayed by 238 days wasn’t due to a lack of talent, but a lack of coherent direction and an inability to communicate across 48 departments. The subsequent internal audit pointed to 8 distinct points of failure, costing a staggering $878,000 in lost productivity and talent. Yet, the initial response was to offer workshops on resilience and self-affirmation.

It’s not about fixing individuals who are already doing their best; it’s about fixing systems that are failing them.

So, the next time that familiar ache tightens in your gut, the one that tells you you don’t belong, pause. Don’t immediately reach for the imposter syndrome label. Instead, ask a different question: Is this feeling a reflection of my capabilities, or is it a perfectly sane reaction to a truly insane situation? Often, the answer points not to an individual flaw, but to the deep, systemic fractures that truly need our attention. We need to stop gaslighting ourselves and each other, and start demanding better systems. The solution isn’t found within; it’s built all around us, in the very structures we inhabit. And sometimes, it’s as simple as making information accessible, turning the ephemeral into the undeniable, using tools that convert audio to text to ensure clarity reigns where confusion once bred doubt. Until then, that ache will continue to remind us.