Why Being Authentic on the Job May Transform Into a Pitfall for People of Color

Throughout the opening pages of the publication Authentic, author Burey raises a critical point: typical injunctions to “come as you are” or “show up completely genuine at work” are far from well-meaning invitations for self-expression – they can be pitfalls. Burey’s debut book – a blend of memoir, research, cultural critique and conversations – seeks to unmask how companies take over individual identity, moving the burden of corporate reform on to employees who are already vulnerable.

Career Path and Wider Environment

The motivation for the work originates in part in the author’s professional path: various roles across corporate retail, emerging businesses and in worldwide progress, filtered through her perspective as a Black disabled woman. The dual posture that Burey faces – a push and pull between standing up for oneself and aiming for security – is the driving force of her work.

It lands at a moment of widespread exhaustion with institutional platitudes across the United States and internationally, as opposition to DEI initiatives mount, and various institutions are cutting back the very frameworks that once promised change and reform. The author steps into that terrain to argue that backing away from the language of authenticity – specifically, the business jargon that minimizes personal identity as a grouping of appearances, idiosyncrasies and hobbies, keeping workers focused on handling how they are perceived rather than how they are handled – is not the answer; we must instead reframe it on our own terms.

Underrepresented Employees and the Display of Self

Via vivid anecdotes and discussions, Burey illustrates how underrepresented staff – employees from diverse backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, employees with disabilities – quickly realize to adjust which persona will “pass”. A vulnerability becomes a disadvantage and people overcompensate by striving to seem palatable. The practice of “showing your complete identity” becomes a display surface on which all manner of assumptions are placed: emotional labor, revealing details and constant performance of appreciation. According to Burey, we are asked to share our identities – but absent the defenses or the trust to withstand what comes out.

As Burey explains, workers are told to share our identities – but absent the defenses or the reliance to endure what comes out.’

Case Study: The Story of Jason

She illustrates this phenomenon through the account of an employee, a deaf employee who chose to educate his co-workers about the culture of the deaf community and interaction standards. His eagerness to talk about his life – a behavior of transparency the organization often applauds as “sincerity” – briefly made daily interactions easier. But as Burey shows, that improvement was precarious. When employee changes erased the informal knowledge he had established, the atmosphere of inclusion vanished. “Everything he taught went away with the staff,” he states tiredly. What remained was the fatigue of being forced to restart, of being held accountable for an institution’s learning curve. From the author’s perspective, this demonstrates to be told to expose oneself lacking safeguards: to endanger oneself in a framework that praises your honesty but fails to codify it into regulation. Sincerity becomes a pitfall when institutions count on employee revelation rather than organizational responsibility.

Literary Method and Notion of Opposition

Her literary style is both lucid and poetic. She blends intellectual rigor with a tone of connection: an offer for audience to engage, to challenge, to disagree. According to the author, workplace opposition is not overt defiance but ethical rejection – the act of opposing uniformity in settings that demand thankfulness for basic acceptance. To oppose, from her perspective, is to question the narratives organizations describe about equity and belonging, and to decline involvement in practices that perpetuate injustice. It might look like naming bias in a discussion, choosing not to participate of uncompensated “equity” effort, or defining borders around how much of oneself is offered to the organization. Opposition, the author proposes, is an affirmation of individual worth in environments that typically reward obedience. It constitutes a practice of integrity rather than rebellion, a approach of insisting that one’s humanity is not dependent on institutional approval.

Redefining Genuineness

She also refuses brittle binaries. The book does not simply discard “authenticity” wholesale: instead, she calls for its restoration. In Burey’s view, authenticity is far from the raw display of individuality that business environment frequently praises, but a more intentional harmony between one’s values and individual deeds – an integrity that opposes manipulation by corporate expectations. Rather than viewing authenticity as a directive to overshare or adapt to sanitized ideals of candor, the author encourages audience to keep the parts of it rooted in sincerity, individual consciousness and moral understanding. According to Burey, the aim is not to abandon authenticity but to shift it – to transfer it from the executive theatrical customs and to relationships and offices where confidence, fairness and responsibility make {