authentic

is it ironic to start my book reviews by writing about a book that I don't have and haven't actually read? ... maybe, probably ....

But I didn't know this book existed until I read about it a moment ago in the guardian and I do want to buy it.

It lands at a moment of collective fatigue with institutional platitudes across the US and beyond, as backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs mount, and many organizations are scaling back the very structures that once promised change and reform. Burey enters that terrain to argue that retreating from authenticity rhetoric – that is, the corporate language that trivializes identity as a collection of aesthetics, quirks and hobbies, keeping workers preoccupied with managing how they are perceived rather than how they are treated – is not a solution; we must instead reframe it on our own terms.

Through vivid anecdotes and interviews, Burey shows how marginalized workers –people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with disabilities – learn early on to calibrate which self will “pass”. A vulnerability becomes a liability and people overcompensate by working to appear palatable. The act of “bringing your full self” becomes a projection screen on which all manner of expectations are cast: emotional labor, disclosure and constant performance of gratitude. In Burey’s words, we are asked to expose ourselves – but without the protections or the trust to survive what emerges.

What remained was the exhaustion of having to start over, of being made responsible for an institution’s learning curve. In Burey’s view, this is what it means to be asked to expose oneself without protection: to risk vulnerability in a system that applauds your transparency but refuses to codify it into policy. Authenticity becomes a trap when institutions depend on individual self-disclosure rather than structural accountability.

It just lands hard and it sounds like there are some similar paths in our journeys.

My personal burnout feels quite burny at the moment but I am also feeling the call to write more about systemic approaches - in fits and starts - which is the way, a big part of the solution she has identified in her writing.

Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work; Jodi-Ann Burey