Corporate America and the myth of the "authentic self"

Values and career pages emphasize a people-first workplace where employees can "bring their whole selves to work," but companies have failed to meet the conditions that would make that possible

*I want to preface this admittedly meandering missive, borderline manifesto (no surprise there) by making a couple things clear from the start.

1. My only big C- Corporate America experience is in the capital B capital C Big City ad agency world. I don't have enough credible insight (firsthand or via network) into other industries to claim that I can speak to a cross-industry experience, though I suspect bones of Corporate America are pretty consistent.

2. This means that I am speaking on a specific type of white collar experience that is a mere subset of a subset of the hundreds of millions of people who collectively work for a living. The demographics of this subset of a subset likely trend higher on college degrees, median incomes, and overall privilege levels. On the spectrum of tiny violins, this one may be happy meal small, but the experiences are still valid.

3. I have been a working adult for almost 20 years - though only the last 9 were in Corporate America - so that's my frame of reference. I can only speculate about what came before this always-on, always available, nothing you do is private era.

4. I can appreciate the deep, deep feelings of anger, betrayal, and fatigue that I know many communities of color across the country are feeling right now at the fact that perhaps the majority of the subset to which I refer in this piece is only just waking up to the violence that our government is capable of inflicting on the people who reside within its borders now that it has been inflicted on citizens with blonde hair and white skin. I write this as a "yes, and" build.

That's a lot to read before getting to the post, but as I continue my own imperfect journey of deprogramming from the cult of white supremacy, I want to practice what I'm preaching. I just want you to know that I also cringe at the sweeping over generalizations made in some of my introductory points... so I want you to know I see it too!*

Being an adult is learning to compartmentalize

Compartmentalization in adulthood has always been standard practice. You don't bring the drama of your friend groups or current argument with your partner into work - either through oversharing the details or letting it affect your interactions with coworkers and clients. If you leave work at 5pm to care for a sick relative the rest of the evening, go home to an apartment so full of clutter it could be on an episode of Hoarders, or drink an entire bottle of vodka in front of the TV until 2am every night, decorum dictates that it's not appropriate to drop that into casual conversation on the sidelines of your kid's soccer game or the PTA meeting.

There were literal TV shows about the importance of maintaining appearances at all costs, keeping up with the Joneses, proving how "together" you are. What happened in your home was nobody's business but the people who lived there

In those vaguely defined 'before times,' a corporate job didn't care about your personal life. You were there to do a job and go home, where you could do what you wanted until you clocked back in at 9 am the next morning. In some cases, anti-discrimination protections actually made it illegal for anyone in management to even ask about your personal life. And of course before the age of teams chats and work email on your personal phone, when you were off the clock, your time was yours.

But of course as they always have, working relationships often turn into friendships, at which point those boundaries might have started to blur, but you both knew that it would be frowned upon to spill the messy details of your sloppy Saturday night at the club on a Monday morning all hands. This unspoken (or explicitly drawn) line between colleagues and coworkers was not to be crossed.

The specifics vary, but the point stands.

The Shift

And then at some point, culture shifted, politics shifted, and Corporate American tuned in. Consumer trend reports started to reveal that people wanted to put their money behind brands that stood for something, and, perhaps more importantly, that they would withhold their money from brands that didn't stand for something. Neutrality was out. A stake in the ground was in.

The C-Suite responded, flooding employee inboxes with emails containing the new buzzwords: inclusion, authenticity, values, giving back, "work that matters."

Lunch and Learns explored the spectrum of sexuality, and panelists sat on stages discussing the gender pay gap and why there were no seats in the boardroom for women in the Fortune 500. We added pronouns to our signatures, new holidays and religious flex days to calendars, and companies revamped their careers page to highlight how important it was that work was a place where employees can "bring their authentic selves."

2020: Corporate America enters the Upside Down

In March 2020, people stopped being polite, and started getting real.

We literally left work on a Friday and on Monday, we had a peek behind the scenes into each other's lives. We saw the unmade beds, post-workout sweats, and laughed at the rogue children and pets of CEOs, HR reps, and the new hires still living at home. Once we got tired of finding the best Office themed Teams background, we started to curate the real thing, letting our bookshelves and artwork do the talking (my print of Cher's iconic quote: "Mom, I am a rich man" was always a conversation starter). The compartmentalization of our work and home lives had been dealt a significant blow, for better or worse.

In fact, this breakdown was freeing for many of us (less so for the high earning white boomer men who now had to spend time with their families and didn't have assistants picking up their lunch or rotating a PDF for them). No longer did it matter if we had a full face of makeup on, snuck in a walk during a break in meetings, or go off camera to finish eating breakfast. Even things as simple as standing desks - a doctors note requiring option in the office - improved our working situations.

I remember the panic that used to settle in my stomach if I left for a walk around the block to try to feel the sun on my face for 5 minutes, or got stuck in a particularly long lunch line in my office days. Now, taking a call from the car on the way to pick up a kid from school or go to the dentist was something that allowed so many of us to make these compartmentalized parts of our lives actually fit together better, rather than exist in a constant state of conflict with each other. Women, in particular, were given the gift of time, once we were relieved of the burden of morning showers, hair and makeup routines, and the inevitable delay caused in the search for a clean outfit that didn't completely clash.

There are, of course, countless studies documenting the way COVID increasingly blurred these work/home boundaries was also incredibly difficult on parents - especially mothers - and led more overall working hours and "always on" expectations in addition to the traditional unequal division of household labor and managing children in distance learning. The phrase "invisible labor" entered the zeitgeist as TikTok provided a way for millions of women to realize that their collective experiences were remarkably similar.

For better or worse, we were perhaps the closest to bringing our authentic selves "into" work as we had ever been.

Adapting to the "new normal"

And clumsy as it was, many companies made a good faith effort to embrace this unexpected shift (which I'm sure had nothing to do with the increased productivity and decreased overhead that brought massive financial gains). They encouraged their employees to share with coworkers in new ways, to utilize relatively new-to-us technology to improve workflows, and (for a while at least) trusted grown ass adults to get their work done in a way that worked for them and their teams.

Two months later, George Floyd was brutally murdered on the sidewalk in front of dozens of bystanders, America entered yet another incomplete phase of reckoning with police violence and the structural and systemic racism that allowed it to happen on such a crushingly regular basis.

Corporate America led the charge, hosting virtual round table discussions where employees were given an opportunity to share their experiences with racism and/or micro aggressions in the work place, discuss the reality of code switching and disclose their personal experiences with racial profiling. White Corporate Americans dutifully completed the new modules on unconscious bias, and funding was allocated to make room for DEI czars in the board room.

I'm not trying to be flippant about this time. A deliberate focus on inclusive policies and honest acknowledgement and atonement for racial, gender, sexuality, and ability-based biases are paramount to a healthy workplace and society.

A lot of these hard conversations needed to be had in the most public forums at the highest levels, and a lot of them didn't go far enough, at best, and were performative, at worst.

In some ways, Corporate America took one step forward and two steps back. And yet, while the process was deeply flawed, employees were allowed to bring their grief into work, and be given a forum to work through it - something that would not have been possible even 10 years prior.

All of this is to say that, even accounting for two steps back, we had taken another huge step towards a world where we were able to show up as our authentic selves to work (again, I will not presume to speak for any of the people in the aforementioned groups as I'm sure there are many that take issue with this statement).

AND... the "BUT" you've been waiting for

Because despite all these real or perceived steps taken towards creating a more "equitable and equal and inclusive and diverse" workplace, there is one red line that Corporate America has continued to not only hold, but has even deliberately reinforced: political discourse.

The irony of this is.. ironic, since so many of these tentpole moments in American culture in the 21st Century have been a direct result of, or reaction to, the choices made by US politicians.

In my humble opinion, the rigidity of this particular boundary is the reason why all of the above efforts and initiatives and task forces inevitably end up so milquetoast. Corporate America encourages voting as a civic duty, and generally provides accommodations for employees to get to the polls, but that's the extent of it. One place you're not going to see open, honest, and leadership-sanctioned political discussions is Corporate America.

In addition to (but in the same family tree as) the Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party, I am also the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding whose whole schtick was challenging people to give him a word that he couldn't source back to a Greek origin. Well, that's me and politics.

[And don't even get me started on the biggest farce of all time: a "socially liberal fiscal conservative"... actually, go ahead and get me started, but in another article]

Though I will die on the hill that it's never not been true, for argument's sake, a plausible case can be made that there was a time when not everything was political. Policies enacted, bills passed, and the man in the White House didn't always meaningfully (or at least so obviously) affect the average person's day to day. There was also more overlap between legislators, leading to less extremes on either side and reducing administration whiplash. I will also cede that differences in political party did not necessarily determine the content of your character.

But in 2026, you can't even squint and make a case with any semblance of sincerity that politics isn't the common denominator of every single thing we do and experience on a daily basis in the United States of America.

Policies reflect the values of the politicians who make them

Politics decide who governs, and the process through which they get there. Policy dictates the substance of what the politicians do. At its core, policies reflect values.

In regards to the US government's modern configuration, the platforms of political parties reflect their conception of the role and responsibility a federal government has in to its citizens. What obligations does it have to provide for their wellbeing? Does every person living within its borders deserve any baseline protections or restrictions? Or, does that responsibility lie with the state they reside in, or with no official structure at all?

Do the people who live and work and pay taxes and spend their money have an attentive landlord, or a slumlord who is just trying to make conditions so bad you'll eventually leave on your own?

Historically, one party believes it owes something to its citizens. One party believes that its citizens owe IT.

One party sees governing as a responsibility, while the other sees it as a business opportunity (happy to save my digression about why CEO is the last thing I want to see on the resume of a political candidate).

Where exactly I fall on the spectrum of the death rattle of our two party system aside, I believe that a government has an obligation to provide for, and ensure the maintenance of the fundamental human rights of every person that resides within its borders - not just because they are citizens, but because they are humans.

I believe that:

Access to clean water is a human right.

Access to enough healthy food to meet daily nutritional needs is a human right.

Health and access to quality healthcare - including preventative care - is a human right.

Equal rights and protection regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, mental and physical ability, and creed is a human right.

Access to quality and equitable K-12 educational opportunities is a human right.

Assurances of being paid a living wage in exchange for your labor under safe working conditions is a human right.

And so on...

There are, of course nuances that people may choose to consider when evaluating the qualification for those rights: age, citizenship status, etc.. but let me be crystal clear about where I stand: there is no nuance or qualification that makes anyone less of a human, or less deserving of the fundamental rights that every human deserves.

While I am speaking for myself right now, I know that my values are not an anomaly. And I believe, as just about every person I know, in living a values-aligned life.

When Corporate America refuses to wade into political discussions, it fundamentally undermines its credibility as policy advocates

Policies are a direct reflection of the values that politicians hold about the human rights of the people they have been elected to govern.

Where and to whom they direct money and where to whom they withhold money signals which values they choose and which ones they reject.

When Corporate America supports a policy they feel aligns with their values as a company, but fails to speak up (or punishes employees who do) when those policies are under threat, they are only doing half the job. That support becomes performative.

Real, raw, authenticity addresses the elephant in the room: that the C-Suite wouldn't need to spend so much time proving how progressive their workplace is if politicians made different policy choices.

The reality is, Corporate America doesn't actually want us to show up as our authentic selves, because in late stage capitalist systems like ours, healthy employees and healthy corporations are mutually exclusive. And when push comes to shove, Corporations gonna Corporate.

Having clear values reduces your cognitive load

The beautiful thing about having conviction in your values, is that it reduces the cognitive strain of any given situation where a position needs to be taken. All that time formerly spent hemming and hawing is saved, because now you have a rubric to help make your decision.

If, after an objectively not complicated event an employee opens an HR or C-suite email that contains phrases like "this is a complicated issue," and "thoughts and prayers for all involved parties," or worse... a complete absence of acknowledgement, they may find themselves scratching their heads.

If a company was truly serious about embodying the values they spend so much time espousing, there would be no hesitation about speaking up and letting employees know where they stand, when those values are threatened.

An authentic embodiment of values looks like: zero hesitation to stand 10 toes down in solidarity with a client whose vulnerable populations are targeted by hateful and discriminatory federal policies.

An inauthentic embodiment of values looks like: telling your employees they can't reach out to their clients with any words of empathy and support because "we do not talk politics with clients."

This dissonance between what is said in a mission statement and what is done when that mission statement is publicly challenged does not instill confidence in employees who aren't sure what will happen if they were to truly show up as their authentic selves.

Refusing to "get into politics" in 2026 tells employees everything they need to know about what company values really are

And so, when the federal government is using weapons grade tear gas in our neighborhoods, it is inauthentic to expect employees to be babysitting their computer after hours for late feedback from a client on a document that's been sitting with them for a week.

When unidentified thugs are playing judge, jury, and executioner in parking lots of strip malls on a Saturday, secure in the knowledge they will get away with it, it is inauthentic to show up to work on Monday and not hear a peep from leadership about it.

When employees are spending every non-working moment coordinating contingency plans for friends and family members with Supreme Court-endorsed targets on their backs because of the color of their skin, or the accent of their english, it is inauthentic and quite frankly, completely inappropriate to expect them to spend the day in a "war room" discussing "battle plans" for reaching Q1 sales targets by increasing the "boots on the ground."

When millions of documents proving the undeniable existence of a global web of (mostly) rich, powerful men who abuse children in ways so horrific and vile that your brain actually shuts down trying to process the torture and pain felt by the victims, and not one person has been held accountable, because this web is the system, it is inauthentic to penalize the employee who doesn't meet their quota of badge swipes that week.

And if an employee fears they will be fired on Monday for the values-aligned words they chant at a rally, or speak at city council meeting, or post on social media on Sunday, they cannot be their authentic self at at all.

Ignoring the world outside the office normalizes things that we have to remember ARE NOT NORMAL

The average middle manager does not have the reserves of cognitive dissonance required to be inundated with "once in a generation" headlines every day, kidnapping alerts pinging their phones, worrying about the safety of friends and relatives and themselves, AND continue to keep up the facade that the work they do on a daily basis is the most important thing in their lives.

AND: Corporate America should not be asking them to.

But when it really comes down to it, authenticity takes courage. It requires doing something because it's the right thing to do, without knowing exactly what it might mean for quarterly profits or client retention. And Corporate America does not like risk - which is not new information, nor should we be surprised by this.

But they should do their employees a favor and stop pretending that their priorities extend beyond keeping their shareholders happy. The myth of a benevolent Corporate America has been exposed in the way the myth of our Constitution has been exposed. The Emperor wears no clothes. We are wasting so much energy pretending we can't see what's right in front of us.

If we can all just admit the truth staring us in the face, perhaps we can find a way to ride out the collapse of the institution together.