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In the opening pages of the publication Authentic, writer Jodi-Ann Burey raises a critical point: typical directives to “bring your true self” or “show up completely genuine at work” are far from well-meaning invitations for individuality – they often become snares. Her first book – a blend of personal stories, research, cultural commentary and interviews – seeks to unmask how organizations co-opt identity, shifting the weight of corporate reform on to employees who are often marginalized.

Personal Journey and Larger Setting

The motivation for the work originates in part in Burey’s own career trajectory: multiple jobs across business retail, emerging businesses and in international development, filtered through her perspective as a disabled Black female. The dual posture that Burey faces – a push and pull between standing up for oneself and seeking protection – is the driving force of the book.

It emerges at a moment of collective fatigue with organizational empty phrases across the United States and internationally, as backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs grow, and various institutions are scaling back the very structures that previously offered progress and development. Burey enters that arena to contend that backing away from the language of authenticity – that is, the organizational speech that minimizes personal identity as a set of surface traits, idiosyncrasies and hobbies, leaving workers concerned with handling how they are perceived rather than how they are treated – is not a solution; we must instead reframe it on our personal terms.

Minority Staff and the Performance of Identity

By means of detailed stories and conversations, Burey illustrates how marginalized workers – individuals of color, LGBTQ+ people, women workers, disabled individuals – soon understand to adjust which identity will “fit in”. A weakness becomes a disadvantage and people try too hard by attempting to look palatable. The practice of “presenting your true self” becomes a projection screen on which various types of anticipations are projected: emotional work, disclosure and continuous act of thankfulness. In Burey’s words, we are asked to expose ourselves – but lacking the protections or the trust to survive what emerges.

As Burey explains, workers are told to reveal ourselves – but without the safeguards or the confidence to survive what comes out.’

Illustrative Story: Jason’s Experience

Burey demonstrates this situation through the story of an employee, a deaf employee who took it upon himself to teach his co-workers about deaf culture and communication practices. His readiness to talk about his life – a gesture of candor the workplace often commends as “sincerity” – briefly made routine exchanges more manageable. However, Burey points out, that advancement was fragile. When staff turnover eliminated the casual awareness the employee had developed, the culture of access disappeared. “Everything he taught departed with those employees,” he comments exhaustedly. What was left was the fatigue of needing to begin again, of being held accountable for an organization’s educational process. In Burey’s view, this is what it means to be told to reveal oneself lacking safeguards: to endanger oneself in a structure that applauds your transparency but refuses to codify it into regulation. Sincerity becomes a trap when organizations depend on personal sharing rather than organizational responsibility.

Writing Style and Notion of Opposition

Her literary style is both understandable and poetic. She blends intellectual rigor with a tone of solidarity: an invitation for readers to engage, to interrogate, to dissent. In Burey’s opinion, professional resistance is not loud rebellion but principled refusal – the act of opposing uniformity in settings that demand thankfulness for simple belonging. To oppose, from her perspective, is to question the accounts companies describe about equity and belonging, and to refuse involvement in practices that sustain injustice. It could involve identifying prejudice in a discussion, withdrawing of unpaid “diversity” work, or setting boundaries around how much of one’s identity is made available to the company. Opposition, she suggests, is an assertion of personal dignity in spaces that often encourage obedience. It is a practice of integrity rather than defiance, a approach of maintaining that one’s humanity is not based on corporate endorsement.

Redefining Genuineness

The author also avoids inflexible opposites. Her work does not merely toss out “genuineness” wholesale: instead, she urges its reclamation. In Burey’s view, authenticity is far from the raw display of personality that corporate culture often celebrates, but a more thoughtful correspondence between individual principles and one’s actions – a principle that rejects alteration by corporate expectations. Rather than viewing authenticity as a mandate to reveal too much or adjust to sterilized models of transparency, Burey advises readers to maintain the aspects of it grounded in sincerity, self-awareness and principled vision. In her view, the aim is not to discard sincerity but to shift it – to remove it from the boardroom’s performative rituals and to connections and organizations where reliance, equity and answerability make {