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When it comes, it will be a gentle tap on the shoulder. A low, kind voice. ¡°C¡¯mon, Senior. Vacate the chair. The real columnist is back, and wants her space. Get your coat.¡± And off I will shuffle, unmasked as a fake, back to writing nuggets of news in brief. Imposter phenomenon. The unremitting conviction that you are employed on a fraudulent basis, that your talents are inadequate, and only quirks of fate and circumstance mean that you are sitting in the chair doing your job, rather than the countless others who are better qualified to do it. Faking it. I knew I suffered from a mild case, even before I realised it wheat pearl was a real condition. It was identified more than 30 years ago by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, in a 1978 study that focused on its prevalence among high-achieving women. Real psychologists argue about whether it merits syndrome status; pop psychologists gleefully publish irritatingly bland advice about how to counter it. There is a horrible irony about how the revolting behemoth that is self-help publishing seizes on the notion of imposter phenomenon. It takes a fake to know a fake. However you categorise it, however, most women that I know understand the shadow it casts. When imposter phenomenon was initially identified, psychologists believed that it was a female condition, but recent research suggests that men suffer from it too. Beneath the gruff posturing, some of my egotistical, seemingly confident colleagues are secretly nursing an ¡°am I worth it?¡± complex. BACKGROUND It is just possible that Bruce Wasserstein, the financier in the book Barbarians at the Gate, the very model of a bullish Wall Street titan, was secretly expecting the shoulder tap, right up to his untimely death this week. ¡°C¡¯mon Bruce. Vacate the chair. Bid ¡¯em up Bruce? Really? It¡¯s not a real job, you know, like teaching or pottery.¡± It is just possible that some of the investment bankers girding their wallets for an inrush of bonus cash are troubled by imposter phenomenon. ¡°You really want to pay ¡¯lil ole me £324,607? Me? I don¡¯t really understand how markets work; it¡¯s all a bit makey-upy . . .¡± says the Goldman Sachs banker in his head, as he stuffs a wedge of cash in a dead-eyed stripper¡¯s G-string. Sufferers, unfortunately, do not admit to their affliction in public, so the Goldman Sachs bankers will stay in the closet. Silence is a necessary part of the syndrome, as confession could hasten the unmasking. (I am safe if I am a true sufferer, as that would mean I¡¯m better than I think I am. Or am I double bluffing myself? Did Bid ¡¯em up Bruce spend long minutes trying to work out if he was fake, or did he just get on with the job of banking $20 billion?) Men like Wasserstein, and those far inferior to him, have successfully monopolised power and money for all but the past 50 years of human history. How? It seems obvious, knowing a few men, that they are not any more capable or intelligent than women. (Nor any less, clearly.) So where has round pearl their inexplicable dominance come from? The imposter phenomenon must come into it. Diagnosis may be difficult, but broadly we can split the world into three camps. Members of the first, let¡¯s call it the David Cameron camp, are reading this in bafflement. Their sense of entitlement is so inbred and so strong that imposter phenomenon would seem an absurd invention by an overpromoted columnist. More men than women fall into the Cameron camp. The City and Westminster are full of them, the entitled, golden ones who view power and wealth as inevitable side-effects of their brilliance Camps two and three involve some swingeing gender stereotyping, so look away now if that offends you. Male sufferers tend to handle the syndrome differently from women. While women fear being found out, men are more cavalier. Their sense of being fraudulent is just part of the thrill of the great game, the competitive jostle of the workplace. These men, the gleeful game-players, are paid more than their more fearful female colleagues, and are quicker to be promoted. In men, the imposter phenomenon is a spur; in women, it is a curse. A report last month by the Human Rights and Equality Commission found that women working full time in the City earn 55 per cent less than men. The pay gap in the wider economy is 28 per cent. Part of the gap can be explained by women self-selecting out of the game ¡ª choosing family ahead of ambition and cash. It is, as Nicola Pease, a star fund manager, said this week, a ¡°commercial reality¡± that some high-paid jobs demand a time commitment that women are not prepared to make. Ms Pease, the deputy chairman of J O Hambro Capital Management, told the Commons Treasury Select Committee that sexism is dead in the City, and issued a compelling plea for the MPs to avoid regulation to close the pay gap. She is right, regulation is not the answer; attitude is all. Anyone who has worked in management knows that women do not ask for pay rises. They do not question their bonuses. They don¡¯t play pay chicken with their employer, ¡ª ¡°pay me more or I¡¯ll quit¡± ¡ª assuming that they will obviously blink first. But employers do not actually want to pay their employees more than they have to. Even Goldman Sachs would be chuffed if it could shave a few quid off its $16.7 billion wage bill. All those women fidgeting at their desks, hoping for more pay and better jobs will just happen by magic, are being trounced by male colleagues who march in and demand their dues. These fakers pocket their raise, chuckling at having duped the rice pearl management. Women must learn to play the game like men ¡ª demand that raise and pocket that bonus with a clear conscience and a sense of mischief. It is time to embrace our inner imposter. | ||
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