Why the Concept of Authenticity in the Workplace Can Become a Snare for Minority Workers

Throughout the initial chapters of the publication Authentic, author the author poses a challenge: everyday directives to “be yourself” or “show up completely genuine at work” are not benevolent calls for personal expression – they’re traps. Her first book – a mix of recollections, research, cultural critique and discussions – attempts to expose how companies co-opt identity, moving the weight of institutional change on to employees who are already vulnerable.

Personal Journey and Broader Context

The impetus for the work originates in part in Burey’s own career trajectory: different positions across corporate retail, emerging businesses and in global development, filtered through her background as a disabled Black female. The conflicting stance that Burey faces – a back-and-forth between standing up for oneself and seeking protection – is the driving force of her work.

It emerges at a moment of general weariness with corporate clichés across America and other regions, as backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs mount, and numerous companies are scaling back the very frameworks that previously offered change and reform. The author steps into that landscape to argue that backing away from the language of authenticity – specifically, the corporate language that trivializes identity as a collection of surface traits, peculiarities and hobbies, keeping workers concerned with controlling how they are viewed rather than how they are handled – is not a solution; we must instead reinterpret it on our own terms.

Minority Staff and the Act of Identity

Through detailed stories and conversations, Burey shows how underrepresented staff – employees from diverse backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, employees with disabilities – learn early on to adjust which self will “pass”. A vulnerability becomes a disadvantage and people try too hard by attempting to look agreeable. The practice of “bringing your full self” becomes a reflective surface on which numerous kinds of assumptions are placed: emotional labor, sharing personal information and constant performance of appreciation. In Burey’s words, we are asked to share our identities – but absent the defenses or the trust to withstand what arises.

As Burey explains, we are asked to reveal ourselves – but absent the protections or the trust to withstand what comes out.’

Illustrative Story: An Employee’s Journey

Burey demonstrates this phenomenon through the narrative of Jason, a hearing-impaired staff member who decided to inform his co-workers about the culture of the deaf community and communication norms. His readiness to share his experience – an act of transparency the workplace often commends as “authenticity” – for a short time made daily interactions easier. Yet, the author reveals, that advancement was precarious. Once personnel shifts eliminated the unofficial understanding Jason had built, the culture of access vanished. “All the information went away with the staff,” he comments exhaustedly. What was left was the fatigue of needing to begin again, of being made responsible for an company’s developmental journey. In Burey’s view, this illustrates to be asked to share personally without protection: to endanger oneself in a framework that celebrates your transparency but declines to institutionalize it into regulation. Sincerity becomes a trap when institutions count on employee revelation rather than institutional answerability.

Author’s Approach and Notion of Opposition

Her literary style is at once lucid and lyrical. She marries scholarly depth with a style of kinship: an invitation for audience to participate, to question, to oppose. For Burey, professional resistance is not loud rebellion but moral resistance – the act of rejecting sameness in workplaces that demand gratitude for simple belonging. To oppose, according to her view, is to interrogate the accounts organizations describe about justice and inclusion, and to refuse involvement in rituals that sustain unfairness. It may appear as identifying prejudice in a discussion, choosing not to participate of unpaid “equity” labor, or defining borders around how much of one’s personal life is made available to the company. Resistance, Burey indicates, is an assertion of self-respect in spaces that often encourage compliance. It constitutes a habit of honesty rather than defiance, a way of maintaining that an individual’s worth is not conditional on institutional approval.

Redefining Genuineness

Burey also rejects brittle binaries. The book does not simply toss out “genuineness” wholesale: instead, she calls for its redefinition. According to the author, authenticity is far from the raw display of character that organizational atmosphere typically applauds, but a more intentional alignment between individual principles and individual deeds – a principle that opposes manipulation by organizational requirements. As opposed to viewing authenticity as a mandate to reveal too much or adapt to cleansed standards of candor, Burey advises audience to preserve the elements of it grounded in truth-telling, personal insight and ethical clarity. In her view, the goal is not to abandon authenticity but to move it – to remove it from the corporate display practices and toward connections and offices where trust, justice and responsibility make {