Imposter Syndrome at Work: What Nobody in HR Will Tell You

You got the promotion. You landed the role. And now you sit in meetings wondering when someone will realise you do not belong there. That feeling has a name. It is called imposter syndrome. And it affects an estimated 70% of professionals at some point in their careers.

The problem is not that you feel like a fraud. The problem is that the feeling is lying to you, and you are believing it.

What Imposter Syndrome Actually Is

Imposter syndrome is the persistent belief that your success is undeserved and that you will eventually be exposed as incompetent. It is not a diagnosis. It is a pattern of thinking that distorts how you evaluate your own competence.

Why It Is Worse in the Gulf

The expatriate environment amplifies imposter syndrome. You are working in a country that is not your own, often in a language that is not your first, surrounded by colleagues from 40 different nationalities. The cultural codes are unfamiliar. The professional norms are different. And the visa system ties your right to live in the country to your employer’s satisfaction with your performance.

That last point is critical. In London or Sydney, if you lose your job, you lose your income. In Dubai, if you lose your job, you lose your income, your home, your children’s school places, and your legal right to remain in the country. The stakes of “being found out” feel existential because, in practical terms, they are.

This pressure cooker environment turns normal self-doubt into chronic anxiety. And it keeps people silent because admitting uncertainty feels like inviting termination.

What the Research Says

A 2020 review in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that imposter syndrome is associated with increased burnout, reduced job satisfaction, and impaired job performance. The irony: the fear of being inadequate actually makes you perform worse, which reinforces the belief that you are inadequate.

High performers are disproportionately affected. The more competent you are, the more you recognise what you do not know, and the more you assume everyone else knows more. This is the Dunning-Kruger effect in reverse. The people who worry most about their competence are usually the most competent people in the room.

How to Manage It

Track your evidence. Keep a document of your achievements, positive feedback, and completed projects. When the imposter voice says “you got lucky,” open the document. Luck does not produce a consistent track record.

Separate feelings from facts. “I feel like I do not belong” is a feeling. “I was hired after a competitive process, I have met my KPIs for three consecutive quarters, and my manager rated me as exceeding expectations” are facts. Feelings are real. They are not always accurate.

Talk to one person. Not everyone. One trusted colleague or mentor who can reflect reality back to you. Imposter syndrome thrives in isolation. It weakens when exposed to someone else’s perspective.

Stop comparing your inside to other people’s outside. Your colleagues look confident in meetings because they are performing confidence, just like you are. The person who sounds most certain is not always the person who knows the most. They are often just the person who has practised sounding certain.

Accept that competence and doubt coexist. You will never feel 100% ready. Waiting to feel ready before you act is a strategy for permanent inaction. Act first. Confidence follows competence, not the other way around.

The voice that says you are not good enough is not protecting you. It is holding you back. And the fact that you worry about being good enough is, paradoxically, evidence that you probably are.

I write about the decisions that actually shape careers, not the ones that look good on paper.

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