For a lengthy period of time, all European societies believed that civil servants were linked to the authority of the state and could not be compared to employees in the private sector. This group of public employees were seen as agents intended to uphold the rule of law and to implement governmental policies. Consequently, civil servants had to have high standards of integrity and be entrusted with a single task: working for a common interest. In this conception, where the state was separated from society and citizens, it was inconceivable that civil servants should have the right to strike or the right to conclude collective working conditions agreements. The objective of this paper is neither to defend a specific civil service model nor to abolish it. Instead, the interest in this study is to illustrate who these public employees actually are, how they perform and how they work. Naturally, another interest is also to examine the many existing clichés, images and perceptions about public servants (are they right or wrong?) and whether public servants differ at all from those working in the private sector. Do public employees, civil servants and private sector employees have a different work ethos and work motivation? Are they performing differently? These questions are of more than academic interest, they are in fact highly sensitive, political and more and more relevant. An increasing number of Member States find it increasingly difficult to argue why certain tasks should be given to civil servants, why civil servants should be treated differently from other employees and why civil servants should have working conditions different of other employees in the public or private sector.