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Throughout the opening pages of the book Authentic, author Jodi-Ann Burey poses a challenge: typical directives to “be yourself” or “present your real identity in the workplace” are far from well-meaning invitations for self-expression – they can be pitfalls. Her first book – a blend of memoir, investigation, cultural commentary and discussions – attempts to expose how businesses take over individual identity, shifting the burden of corporate reform on to staff members who are already vulnerable.

Professional Experience and Larger Setting

The impetus for the work lies partially in Burey’s personal work history: different positions across business retail, emerging businesses and in worldwide progress, viewed through her experience as a woman of color with a disability. The conflicting stance that the author encounters – a back-and-forth between standing up for oneself and seeking protection – is the driving force of the book.

It emerges at a time of general weariness with corporate clichés across the United States and internationally, as opposition to DEI initiatives mount, and many organizations are scaling back the very structures that previously offered progress and development. Burey delves into that terrain to contend that retreating from the language of authenticity – that is, the business jargon that minimizes personal identity as a grouping of surface traits, quirks and interests, leaving workers concerned with controlling how they are seen rather than how they are treated – is not an effective response; rather, we should reframe it on our own terms.

Underrepresented Employees and the Act of Identity

Through vivid anecdotes and interviews, the author demonstrates how marginalized workers – people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with disabilities – soon understand to modulate which identity will “be acceptable”. A weakness becomes a liability and people compensate excessively by working to appear agreeable. The act of “bringing your full self” becomes a reflective surface on which various types of expectations are placed: affective duties, sharing personal information and continuous act of gratitude. As the author states, employees are requested to reveal ourselves – but lacking the defenses or the reliance to endure what arises.

According to the author, employees are requested to expose ourselves – but lacking the safeguards or the trust to survive what emerges.’

Real-Life Example: Jason’s Experience

The author shows this situation through the account of Jason, a employee with hearing loss who decided to inform his team members about deaf culture and interaction standards. His eagerness to discuss his background – a behavior of transparency the workplace often applauds as “authenticity” – briefly made routine exchanges smoother. But as Burey shows, that advancement was fragile. After personnel shifts wiped out the unofficial understanding Jason had built, the culture of access disappeared. “All of that knowledge went away with the staff,” he comments exhaustedly. What remained was the exhaustion of having to start over, of being made responsible for an institution’s learning curve. From the author’s perspective, this demonstrates to be told to reveal oneself without protection: to risk vulnerability in a system that celebrates your openness but fails to formalize it into regulation. Authenticity becomes a trap when organizations rely on personal sharing rather than structural accountability.

Writing Style and Notion of Opposition

Her literary style is both lucid and lyrical. She blends intellectual rigor with a style of connection: an invitation for readers to lean in, to interrogate, to dissent. For Burey, workplace opposition is not overt defiance but ethical rejection – the effort of rejecting sameness in workplaces that expect gratitude for simple belonging. To resist, in her framing, is to interrogate the narratives companies tell about fairness and acceptance, and to decline participation in rituals that perpetuate injustice. It could involve identifying prejudice in a meeting, opting out of voluntary “equity” labor, or setting boundaries around how much of one’s personal life is made available to the company. Resistance, the author proposes, is an affirmation of self-respect in spaces that frequently praise compliance. It is a practice of principle rather than defiance, a approach of asserting that a person’s dignity is not conditional on institutional approval.

Restoring Sincerity

The author also avoids inflexible opposites. The book does not merely discard “sincerity” wholesale: on the contrary, she urges its reclamation. For Burey, genuineness is not the unrestricted expression of character that corporate culture typically applauds, but a more thoughtful alignment between one’s values and individual deeds – a honesty that resists alteration by organizational requirements. Instead of viewing sincerity as a requirement to disclose excessively or conform to cleansed standards of transparency, Burey urges audience to keep the elements of it rooted in honesty, individual consciousness and ethical clarity. From her perspective, the objective is not to abandon authenticity but to relocate it – to move it out of the executive theatrical customs and into relationships and organizations where trust, fairness and accountability make {