This article reports on findings from a KickResume poll of 1,365 employees globally, examining honesty and candour in workplace self-performance reviews. The central argument is that most employees engage in some form of self-presentation management during reviews, with 71% admitting to less than full honesty. Key findings indicate that employees most commonly make themselves appear slightly better than reality (38%), focus disproportionately on strengths (18%), or suppress authentic feedback on sensitive topics including manager performance (36%), career intentions (23%), salary expectations (22%), and personal struggles (18%). Only 29% described themselves as fully candid. The report positions this behaviour as a response to perceived unwritten workplace norms rather than deliberate deception. Despite this honesty gap, employees express genuine desire for meaningful review processes, with 39% indicating that value depends on how managers act on feedback rather than the review form itself. KickResume CEO Peter Duris frames the solution as treating performance reviews as relationship-building tools, emphasising personalised manager follow-through as the critical factor in review effectiveness. Key insights: 71% of employees admit to some degree of dishonesty in self-reviews, with the most common behaviour being presenting themselves slightly more favourably than reality. The topics employees most avoid disclosing — manager feedback, real career goals, salary expectations, and personal struggles — mirror the broadest sources of workplace tension and perceived risk. 39% of employees believe the value of performance reviews depends not on the self-review process itself but on what managers do with the information afterwards, elevating managerial follow-through as the pivotal variable. Practical takeaways: Organisations using self-review processes may be receiving systematically skewed input, with employees self-censoring on topics most relevant to workforce planning, retention risk, and manager effectiveness. Managerial response quality and personalisation appear to be the primary determinants of employee perception of review value, suggesting that process design alone does not drive engagement with performance systems.