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Within the opening pages of the publication Authentic, author Burey poses a challenge: typical directives to “be yourself” or “show up completely genuine at work” are not benevolent calls for individuality – they’re traps. This initial publication – a combination of memoir, investigation, cultural commentary and interviews – aims to reveal how companies appropriate personal identity, transferring the weight of institutional change on to employees who are frequently at risk.

Personal Journey and Larger Setting

The impetus for the book stems partly in Burey’s personal work history: multiple jobs across business retail, new companies and in international development, filtered through her background as a disabled Black female. The two-fold position that the author encounters – a tension between expressing one’s identity and seeking protection – is the driving force of Authentic.

It emerges at a period of widespread exhaustion with institutional platitudes across the United States and internationally, as resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs grow, and many organizations are cutting back the very systems that once promised change and reform. Burey enters that landscape to contend that retreating from the language of authenticity – namely, the business jargon that trivializes identity as a grouping of surface traits, quirks and hobbies, forcing workers preoccupied with handling how they are perceived rather than how they are regarded – is not a solution; we must instead reframe it on our personal terms.

Underrepresented Employees and the Display of Persona

Via detailed stories and conversations, the author demonstrates how employees from minority groups – employees from diverse backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women workers, disabled individuals – soon understand to calibrate which persona will “fit in”. A weakness becomes a disadvantage and people try too hard by striving to seem palatable. The effort of “bringing your full self” becomes a display surface on which all manner of assumptions are cast: emotional labor, sharing personal information and continuous act of appreciation. As the author states, workers are told to expose ourselves – but absent the defenses or the trust to withstand what arises.

‘In Burey’s words, employees are requested to share our identities – but lacking the safeguards or the trust to withstand what comes out.’

Illustrative Story: An Employee’s Journey

The author shows this dynamic through the narrative of Jason, a hearing-impaired staff member who decided to inform his colleagues about the culture of the deaf community and interaction standards. His eagerness to talk about his life – a behavior of candor the organization often applauds as “sincerity” – for a short time made routine exchanges smoother. But as Burey shows, that improvement was precarious. Once employee changes eliminated the informal knowledge he had established, the atmosphere of inclusion vanished. “All the information left with them,” he states tiredly. What remained was the exhaustion of having to start over, of being held accountable for an institution’s learning curve. According to Burey, this illustrates to be told to share personally without protection: to face exposure in a system that praises your openness but declines to institutionalize it into procedure. Genuineness becomes a trap when institutions count on personal sharing rather than institutional answerability.

Author’s Approach and Idea of Resistance

Burey’s writing is simultaneously understandable and poetic. She marries intellectual rigor with a tone of connection: an invitation for audience to participate, to interrogate, to disagree. For Burey, professional resistance is not overt defiance but principled refusal – the effort of rejecting sameness in environments that require appreciation for mere inclusion. To dissent, according to her view, is to question the narratives organizations narrate about fairness and acceptance, and to decline involvement in rituals that sustain unfairness. It could involve naming bias in a discussion, withdrawing of unpaid “diversity” labor, or establishing limits around how much of oneself is offered to the institution. Resistance, she suggests, is an affirmation of self-respect in settings that typically reward conformity. It is a practice of integrity rather than rebellion, a approach of insisting that an individual’s worth is not based on corporate endorsement.

Redefining Genuineness

She also refuses inflexible opposites. The book does not merely toss out “sincerity” wholesale: rather, she advocates for its restoration. In Burey’s view, genuineness is far from the raw display of character that business environment typically applauds, but a more thoughtful alignment between one’s values and one’s actions – a principle that opposes manipulation by corporate expectations. Instead of considering authenticity as a requirement to overshare or conform to sterilized models of candor, Burey urges readers to maintain the aspects of it grounded in sincerity, self-awareness and principled vision. According to Burey, the objective is not to give up on authenticity but to move it – to transfer it from the corporate display practices and into relationships and organizations where confidence, justice and answerability make {