I read the CIPD’s report on building productive public-sector workplaces with real interest. The report doesn’t make for comfortable reading, especially for someone working in public services and in HR specifically. However, if it had been cosy then what would have been the purpose in writing it? No matter how challenging this report is, defensiveness and denial aren’t how public servants, including HR, should respond. I was encouraged to read that the CIPD considered there were examples of excellent practice within the sector. Where the public sector is good, it’s very, very good. Where the public sector is bad, it’s dire. The same, however, can be said of any other sector or industry. That’s why I think that the balance struck by the report is right, because none of this is new or surprising. If it was then I’d start to worry.