The employer, the state, long had the right to unilaterally set wages and determine working conditions. The goverment employees lacked the right to negotiate and sign agreements and to strike. This dissertation focuses on government employees, analyzing their identity and the strategies they chose to deal with their relationship to their employer. The perspective is that of the railway stations staff, postmen and other low-ranking civil servants employed by the Swedish National Railway and the Royal Post Office 1897-1937.