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In our cover story, we shine a spotlight on “ The Magazine
in the sterile areas of clinical pharmaceutical research, there exists an enduring psychological battle that many people do not talk about: Imposter Syndrome. Professionals in this sector are expected to be precise in their work, go to extreme measures, and embrace pushing boundaries to ensure innovations that are life saving.
Strangely designed labs and methods of work come along with harsh protocols. Competent researchers and scientists may, to some degree, struggle with self-perception issues as even the most accomplished individuals have to deal with, “I don’t fit here,” or “I’m not that capable.” The burden of being exemplary as a standard in an industry comes at a price, which is, overwhelming pressure that leads to doubts in oneself.
Doubting if one is good enough and constantly fearing getting exposed as a fraud or unable to measure up is what Imposter Syndrome stands for. While an unrecognized label, syndrome X is a recurrent and prevalent phenomenon, particularly in high achievers which speaks volumes on how competitive society has become.
With steep learning curves, these unsuspected lightly manifest innate fears in an individual finding themselves in Pharmaceutical labs with stringent deadlines and high expectations make accomplishments excruciatingly daunting.
An analyst refuses to submit the results from the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography analysis since they need to verify it one final time, despite having an accurate piece of data after the second check. Sound familiar? This is an example of perfectionism and in pharma, it can be a timeline and productivity issue.
More often than not, you’ll catch scientists at the laboratory late in the evening or accepting additional work, group projects or tasks, and volunteering to do things that were not part of their job description, all to “maintain” their position. The consequences? Burnout disguised as commitment.
When a colleague does not come to contribute in one of the meetings, or tries to minimize the work that they did on a paper they published, this might be some sort of modesty. In reality, they could be facing one of many forms of ‘Imposter Syndrome,’ in this case, softening the edges of one’s skills.
More mature R & D environments tend to have a fast pace and a scientist may choose to remain reticent about some obscure detail of the protocol that needs clarification. They worry that asking one “dumb” question is going to ruin everything concerning their image.
“He was only lucky that his formulation passed stability testing,” or “I received the job because the candidate pool was subpar.” Such assertions reveal a pernicious mindset that dismisses success as something achieved rather than earned.
New Entrants: More often than not, fresh graduates or entry-level researchers believe they do not live up to their older counterparts.
Women and Minorities in STEM: Members of minorities and women identify with compounded self-doubt because of additional societal and cultural norms.
High Achievers: Super achievers bear the most further, those accoladed the most tend to struggle because of the internal standards they set for themselves.
In an industry where every detail matters, self-doubt can be incredibly detrimental. Imposter syndrome can:
Encourage narrative around failed experiments or learnings. Talking about failures while celebrating it as a part of science helps people accept it.
Help assure junior scientists they are not alone by meeting them with warm mentors who have indeed been there too.
Having informal emotional wellbeing peer support groups is great, but having HR-facilitated support for mental wellness check-ins is even better.
Supervisors need to be able to provide help, not judgment, for behaviour that indicates someone is grappling with imposter syndrome.
Imposter syndrome is something that festers in silence. Pharma labs, with their cold, clinical focus, offer very little in the way of personal vulnerability, and that is one thing that needs to change.
If you, or a colleague, feel like you are pretending to be something you are not, ask yourself this: Why do I care so much? Because caring so deeply about personal, extremely high standards of work is a very valid reason to consider themselves a part of the team.
