'Bring your authentic self to work' - How this can do more harm than good
‘Be your authentic self at work – but only if you are white’ – Leiva
The phrase ‘Bring your authentic self to work’ is defined as ‘being comfortable enough at work to share your personal life, interests, and flaws; the ability to share and live through your own culture comfortably.’
However, as nice as this sounds, it only really applies to employees who fit the majority group characteristics and behaviours in terms of positive impacts. This ideology of bringing your authentic self to work has become extremely popular in recent years as an attempt to create a more accepting culture at work. However, as stated, this only really benefits employees in the majority group. Even since the popularity arose, many employees who do not fit the majority group view of what is acceptable have been asked to change their appearance, their language, their tone, and even their personality, whether done subtly or not.
The idea of bringing your authentic self to work expresses the ideal way of living in which there is a lack of code-switching. Code-switching is defined as ‘alternating between languages, tonal registers, and making dialectical shifts’, in other words: being forced to change yourself to fit into the expectations of the dominant society. Code-switching is a validation technique often used by individuals who are not from the majority group in order to appear more professional, which has progressively become a synonym - for example with people of colour - to aim for ‘whiteness’. Common manifestations of this are to change up your African dialect to “Sound whiter”, or even change up your hairstyle to “appear whiter”.
Many black-African employees have been forced to change their appearance, for example, hairstyles such as dreadlocks and afros are often deemed inappropriate and un-professional. However, these hairstyles are often natural styles amongst black-African individuals and is a part of their culture, in which by forcing black employees to change up their appearance is a form of racism, and completely opposes this idea of being authentic at work. Similarly, many black females feel that in order to either be hired or to keep their job, they must live up to white standards in which they often straighten their hair for this validation.
‘Bring your authentic self to work’ is often seen as a micro-aggressive command that is mostly used against people of colour and women, that executives, employees, managers, and business leaders seem to not really mean. Many women and people of colour disagree with the phrase entirely. Bracy believes that many workplaces, especially those who promote the idea of authenticity at work, become toxic to people of colour as there is an on-going, damaging expectation of keeping white employees, and more importantly making sure that white employees feel comfortable at work. This ideology suggests that employees who do not fit the majority group are a burden to the safety and well-being of other employees and disrupts their ability to be their authentic self at work.
An example of this was seen in recent years when a male lawyer, Aaron Schlossberg, threatened to call US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) on some workers who were speaking Spanish at work. Schlossberg was later forced to apologise and claimed that he “is not racist”.
According to a 2017 study, even at the beginning of the job process do white applicants benefit from this ideology. The study shows that white applicants have a significantly higher number of call-backs for a job than equally qualified black applicants. Aspects such as having a “black name” or having an afro are what makes them less likely to receive a call back. Similarly, if they do get the job they are often seen as trouble, or are made to feel uncomfortable, which means that even when businesses hire people from more diverse backgrounds, managers, executives, leaders, and CEO’s often struggle to keep them in the jobs they are given due to this unfortunate reality of “bringing your authentic self at work.”
This often results in employees from under-represented groups leaving these jobs to further their career in lower paid or lower status jobs to feel comfortable being themselves. For example, one Latina felt the unfair standards of bringing your authentic self to work at a bigger company, so decided to get a “lower status” job as a bar waitress as she was able to experience authenticity for what it truly meant. This also helps to explain why there is such a high lack of diversity amongst “higher status” jobs.
So, although the idea of authenticity at work stems from a positive thought to improve the work environment and work experience for employees, it is crucial that every employee is considered as not everyone will be impacted positively. It is rather unsafe to share the idea of authenticity at work as it creates another barrier against employees who do not fit the majority view, and re-iterates their lack of privilege in this area.
Ishreen Bradley is a Strategic Pioneer who guides Professional Leaders to navigate complex situations and achieve success with clarity, confidence and courage. Her focus is to cultivate mindsets and cultures that acknowledge valuable difference, inclusive behaviours and authentic leadership.
She advises, consults, trains and coaches senior leaders through her compassionate, intuitive and incisive approach - facilitating them to develop themselves and their teams towards their growth strategy. You can continue this conversation with Ishreen by email: equitychampions@belongingpioneers.com
Originally Released On 17 May 2022