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Within the initial chapters of the book Authentic, writer the author raises a critical point: commonplace injunctions to “come as you are” or “present your real identity in the workplace” are far from well-meaning invitations for individuality – they’re traps. This initial publication – a blend of recollections, studies, societal analysis and discussions – attempts to expose how businesses co-opt identity, moving the weight of organizational transformation on to staff members who are frequently at risk.

Career Path and Larger Setting

The impetus for the publication lies partially in Burey’s own career trajectory: various roles across retail corporations, new companies and in international development, viewed through her experience as a woman of color with a disability. The conflicting stance that Burey experiences – a tension between standing up for oneself and seeking protection – is the driving force of her work.

It emerges at a moment of general weariness with organizational empty phrases across America and other regions, as resistance to diversity and inclusion efforts increase, and numerous companies are cutting back the very systems that previously offered transformation and improvement. Burey delves into that arena to argue that retreating from the language of authenticity – that is, the business jargon that trivializes identity as a grouping of surface traits, quirks and pastimes, leaving workers preoccupied with controlling how they are perceived rather than how they are handled – is not an effective response; instead, we need to reinterpret it on our personal terms.

Minority Staff and the Performance of Persona

Via vivid anecdotes and conversations, Burey shows how marginalized workers – employees from diverse backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women workers, employees with disabilities – quickly realize to calibrate which self will “pass”. A weakness becomes a drawback and people overcompensate by striving to seem palatable. The practice of “showing your complete identity” becomes a projection screen on which numerous kinds of expectations are placed: affective duties, revealing details and continuous act of thankfulness. As the author states, employees are requested to share our identities – but absent the protections or the reliance to endure what arises.

‘In Burey’s words, we are asked to reveal ourselves – but absent the protections or the trust to survive what comes out.’

Illustrative Story: The Story of Jason

Burey demonstrates this situation through the account of Jason, a employee with hearing loss who took it upon himself to teach his co-workers about the culture of the deaf community and communication norms. His readiness to discuss his background – an act of transparency the organization often commends as “sincerity” – temporarily made everyday communications more manageable. But as Burey shows, that improvement was precarious. Once employee changes wiped out the casual awareness he had established, the atmosphere of inclusion disappeared. “Everything he taught left with them,” he notes wearily. What was left was the fatigue of being forced to restart, of being made responsible for an institution’s learning curve. From the author’s perspective, this is what it means to be told to share personally without protection: to risk vulnerability in a system that celebrates your openness but refuses to institutionalize it into regulation. Authenticity becomes a trap when companies count on personal sharing rather than institutional answerability.

Writing Style and Idea of Resistance

Burey’s writing is simultaneously clear and poetic. She marries academic thoroughness with a manner of solidarity: an offer for followers to engage, to interrogate, to dissent. According to the author, workplace opposition is not loud rebellion but principled refusal – the act of rejecting sameness in environments that expect gratitude for simple belonging. To dissent, from her perspective, is to interrogate the narratives companies tell about equity and acceptance, and to refuse engagement in rituals that perpetuate unfairness. It might look like naming bias in a meeting, choosing not to participate of uncompensated “equity” work, or establishing limits around how much of one’s personal life is provided to the company. Dissent, the author proposes, is an assertion of individual worth in settings that typically reward conformity. It represents a discipline of principle rather than rebellion, a way of asserting that one’s humanity is not conditional on institutional approval.

Restoring Sincerity

She also refuses rigid dichotomies. The book does not simply discard “authenticity” wholesale: on the contrary, she calls for its redefinition. According to the author, genuineness is not simply the unfiltered performance of individuality that business environment often celebrates, but a more intentional alignment between individual principles and individual deeds – a principle that opposes alteration by organizational requirements. Rather than viewing sincerity as a mandate to overshare or adapt to sanitized ideals of candor, the author encourages readers to preserve the parts of it based on truth-telling, individual consciousness and ethical clarity. In her view, the goal is not to abandon sincerity but to shift it – to transfer it from the boardroom’s performative rituals and toward interactions and offices where confidence, fairness and accountability make {