"Let's start with a confession: I've never been fully authentic for a single day in my life. Neither have you. I don't mean this as an accusation. I see it as fact. The relentless cultural message telling us to "be ourselves" might be the cruelest advice we've ever collectively accepted. It promises liberation but brings anxiety. Because here's what nobody mentions when they sell you authenticity as the path to enlightenment: being your full, unfiltered self would make you unemployable, unfriendable"
"His point was straightforward: authenticity can harm your career. Research supports him-highly authentic employees earn less, get fewer promotions, and are seen as less effective leaders. Brené Brown, whose TED talk on vulnerability has 60 million views, wasn't having it. Grant had misrepresented her work, she argued. Her definition of authenticity isn't about "mindlessly spewing whatever you're thinking." It's about "the courage to be imperfect, vulnerable, and to set boundaries." Grant feared oversharing. Brown feared self-abandonment."
Contemporary culture promotes "be yourself" while social and economic realities penalize full, unfiltered authenticity. Research links high authenticity to lower pay, fewer promotions, and weaker leadership perceptions. Vulnerability and boundaries can coexist with selectivity about disclosure. Public debates framed authenticity as either harmful oversharing or dangerous self-abandonment, revealing that authenticity is contingent on which aspects of self are expressed and to whom. In workplaces, people craft a "false self" to stay safe, accepted, and employed. The risk is not merely wearing a mask but forgetting it exists, producing exhaustion and ongoing performance rather than genuine belonging.
Read at Psychology Today
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