Why Being Authentic in the Workplace May Transform Into a Pitfall for Employees of Color

In the opening pages of the publication Authentic, author the author issues a provocation: commonplace advice to “be yourself” or “show up completely genuine at work” are far from well-meaning invitations for personal expression – they often become snares. This initial publication – a blend of memoir, investigation, cultural critique and interviews – seeks to unmask how companies take over individual identity, shifting the burden of institutional change on to individual workers who are frequently at risk.

Personal Journey and Larger Setting

The driving force for the book originates in part in Burey’s own career trajectory: multiple jobs across business retail, startups and in international development, filtered through her background as a disabled Black female. The dual posture that Burey experiences – a push and pull between asserting oneself and looking for safety – is the driving force of Authentic.

It arrives at a time of collective fatigue with organizational empty phrases across America and other regions, as resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs increase, and various institutions are scaling back the very systems that previously offered change and reform. Burey delves into that landscape to argue that withdrawing from authenticity rhetoric – that is, the business jargon that reduces individuality as a set of surface traits, peculiarities and hobbies, forcing workers concerned with managing how they are viewed rather than how they are regarded – is not a solution; rather, we should reframe it on our own terms.

Minority Staff and the Display of Self

Through vivid anecdotes and conversations, Burey shows how employees from minority groups – individuals of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, disabled individuals – soon understand to adjust which persona will “be acceptable”. A vulnerability becomes a drawback and people try too hard by attempting to look palatable. The practice of “presenting your true self” becomes a reflective surface on which various types of assumptions are projected: emotional labor, revealing details and constant performance of appreciation. As the author states, we are asked to expose ourselves – but absent the defenses or the reliance to withstand what emerges.

‘In Burey’s words, workers are told to expose ourselves – but lacking the defenses or the confidence to survive what arises.’

Case Study: An Employee’s Journey

She illustrates this dynamic through the story of Jason, a employee with hearing loss who decided to inform his colleagues about deaf community norms and interaction standards. His readiness to discuss his background – a gesture of candor the workplace often commends as “authenticity” – for a short time made routine exchanges more manageable. However, Burey points out, that progress was precarious. When employee changes eliminated the informal knowledge the employee had developed, the atmosphere of inclusion dissolved with it. “Everything he taught went away with the staff,” he comments exhaustedly. What was left was the fatigue of having to start over, of being held accountable for an institution’s learning curve. From the author’s perspective, this demonstrates to be asked to expose oneself without protection: to risk vulnerability in a system that applauds your openness but refuses to codify it into policy. Genuineness becomes a pitfall when institutions rely on personal sharing rather than structural accountability.

Author’s Approach and Idea of Resistance

The author’s prose is both lucid and lyrical. She combines academic thoroughness with a style of connection: an invitation for followers to participate, to challenge, to disagree. In Burey’s opinion, workplace opposition is not noisy protest but ethical rejection – the act of opposing uniformity in environments that require thankfulness for simple belonging. To oppose, in her framing, is to question the stories organizations tell about justice and inclusion, and to refuse engagement in rituals that maintain injustice. It may appear as calling out discrimination in a gathering, opting out of uncompensated “equity” effort, or establishing limits around how much of one’s identity is offered to the institution. Resistance, the author proposes, is an affirmation of self-respect in spaces that frequently reward compliance. It constitutes a habit of principle rather than rebellion, a method of maintaining that an individual’s worth is not based on corporate endorsement.

Restoring Sincerity

Burey also rejects brittle binaries. The book avoids just eliminate “genuineness” entirely: instead, she urges its redefinition. In Burey’s view, authenticity is far from the raw display of personality that business environment often celebrates, but a more intentional correspondence between one’s values and personal behaviors – a honesty that resists distortion by corporate expectations. Rather than viewing genuineness as a directive to disclose excessively or adjust to cleansed standards of candor, the author encourages audience to keep the elements of it rooted in sincerity, self-awareness and ethical clarity. According to Burey, the goal is not to give up on authenticity but to move it – to remove it from the executive theatrical customs and toward relationships and workplaces where confidence, equity and accountability make {