Woman Suffering From Impostor Syndrome Actually Just Bad At Her Job

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—“It made me feel...confused...lost. I started questioning my reality.”

In a tearful interview, Jennifer Garza recounts listening to her job’s worst employee vent about impostor syndrome.

“I started saying things like, ‘No, you’re doing great,’ and, ‘You’re right, it’s all in your head.’ I became someone I’m not,” says Garza.

Known as an abundance of self-doubt and a lack of self-worth, impostor syndrome has become the latest delusional trend in the workplace. Studies show that more than 70% of working Americans claim to suffer from impostor syndrome, and more than half of those people are just bad at their job.

Twenty-seven-year-old Anna Gilbert is just one of thousands forcing their colleagues to feign compassion while white-knuckling a nearby surface.

“It’s like she’s so close to being self-aware, yet so far away, and you almost have to give her credit for at least half-acknowledging it?” says recent hire, Garrett Broker. At just twenty-three years old, Broker entered the company fresh out of college. Nervous, he says he was prepared to “not be as good as everyone else”, and “have a long way to go.” His sentiments quickly changed when he met Gilbert.

“One of the first things she said to me was, ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. I’ve been here for a year and I still sometimes feel like everything I do is wrong.’ I appreciated the support but was torn because just that day I had seen her do multiple things wrong.”

As someone who didn’t learn how to do laundry until college, it’s no surprise that Gilbert blames her shortcomings on a diagnosis she can make herself. One can only hope the company does the right thing for all involved and lets Gilbert go, but it’s unlikely a father would fire his daughter.