This paper analyzes the emergence of users of public services in speeches, structures and practices, and their consequences on civil servants’ conditions of labor, especially in the PTT (Postal, Telephone and Telegraph sectors). French PTT tried to maintain its position in a highly competitive context, especially concerning financial products. This changed the perception of the public service between 1965 and 1974: the equality of all users in public services is transformed into the equality of users in the same conditions. But postmen have not waited for administrative instructions in order to improve services to users, especially in financial services. Their practices had already changed. Thus, the history of the links between the State, the PTT and civil servants helps us to understand the idea of public service. Ideas and practices are constantly negotiated between groups who may have divergent interests.