The Ways the Concept of Authenticity on the Job Can Become a Trap for Employees of Color

In the opening pages of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, writer Jodi-Ann Burey raises a critical point: typical directives to “come as you are” or “present your real identity in the workplace” are not benevolent calls for self-expression – they can be pitfalls. Her first book – a blend of memoir, research, societal analysis and interviews – attempts to expose how companies take over individual identity, moving the weight of institutional change on to individual workers who are already vulnerable.

Personal Journey and Larger Setting

The driving force for the book originates in part in Burey’s personal work history: different positions across business retail, startups and in global development, interpreted via her background as a Black disabled woman. The conflicting stance that Burey faces – a back-and-forth between expressing one’s identity and seeking protection – is the engine of Authentic.

It emerges at a moment of general weariness with institutional platitudes across the United States and internationally, as backlash to DEI initiatives grow, and various institutions are cutting back the very systems that earlier assured change and reform. Burey delves into that landscape to argue that retreating from authenticity rhetoric – that is, the organizational speech that trivializes identity as a set of aesthetics, idiosyncrasies and pastimes, keeping workers focused on managing how they are seen rather than how they are handled – is not an effective response; instead, we need to redefine it on our own terms.

Marginalized Workers and the Display of Identity

By means of detailed stories and interviews, the author demonstrates how employees from minority groups – employees from diverse backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women workers, employees with disabilities – quickly realize to calibrate which self will “be acceptable”. A sensitive point becomes a drawback and people overcompensate by attempting to look agreeable. The act of “presenting your true self” becomes a display surface on which all manner of anticipations are projected: emotional work, disclosure and continuous act of appreciation. In Burey’s words, employees are requested to reveal ourselves – but absent the defenses or the trust to survive what arises.

According to the author, we are asked to share our identities – but without the defenses or the trust to withstand what arises.’

Real-Life Example: An Employee’s Journey

Burey demonstrates this dynamic through the story of an employee, a hearing-impaired staff member who took it upon himself to inform his team members about deaf community norms and interaction standards. His willingness to share his experience – a behavior of openness the workplace often commends as “sincerity” – for a short time made routine exchanges easier. Yet, the author reveals, that advancement was unstable. Once staff turnover wiped out the unofficial understanding he had established, the environment of accessibility vanished. “All of that knowledge left with them,” he comments exhaustedly. What remained was the exhaustion of being forced to restart, of having to take charge for an organization’s educational process. From the author’s perspective, this demonstrates to be asked to share personally absent defenses: to face exposure in a system that praises your openness but refuses to codify it into regulation. Sincerity becomes a pitfall when organizations rely on individual self-disclosure rather than structural accountability.

Author’s Approach and Concept of Dissent

Burey’s writing is simultaneously understandable and lyrical. She blends scholarly depth with a manner of solidarity: an offer for followers to participate, to interrogate, to dissent. In Burey’s opinion, dissent at work is not loud rebellion but moral resistance – the effort of resisting conformity in environments that expect thankfulness for basic acceptance. To dissent, from her perspective, is to question the narratives organizations describe about justice and acceptance, and to decline participation in rituals that sustain injustice. It might look like identifying prejudice in a meeting, opting out of unpaid “inclusion” work, or setting boundaries around how much of one’s identity is made available to the company. Resistance, she suggests, is an affirmation of personal dignity in spaces that typically encourage compliance. It represents a habit of honesty rather than defiance, a method of asserting that one’s humanity is not conditional on institutional approval.

Redefining Genuineness

She also refuses brittle binaries. Her work does not merely discard “authenticity” completely: on the contrary, she calls for its reclamation. For Burey, genuineness is far from the unfiltered performance of character that organizational atmosphere typically applauds, but a more deliberate harmony between personal beliefs and personal behaviors – a principle that opposes manipulation by corporate expectations. Instead of considering genuineness as a directive to reveal too much or conform to cleansed standards of openness, Burey urges followers to preserve the elements of it grounded in sincerity, personal insight and principled vision. According to Burey, the goal is not to discard sincerity but to move it – to transfer it from the corporate display practices and toward relationships and offices where trust, equity and responsibility make {