Eventually, Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy emerged from the hulking building to listen to the complaints in person. He was appointed by Mubarak last week, just prior to the president's resignation, as part of a shake-up of senior government leaders.

"Give me a chance," he implored the police.

With Mubarak gone, other civil servants also saw an opportunity to voice their grievances.

A few blocks from the Interior Ministry, a couple hundred protesters held a noisy sit-in at the front entrance of the Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit. They were employees of the state-owned bank and also wanted a raise.

But they aimed most of their ire at the bank's chairman, whom they described as a profit-skimming Mubarak crony intent on ruining the bank's bottom line.

Ahmed Mahmoud, a bank manager involved in the protests, accused his bosses of trying to turn the bank into a money-losing operation. He said the hidden intent was to privatize its operations - and sell it for a song to politically connected investors, a common complaint during Mubarak's rule.

"Today is our ideal chance to make our voices heard," Mahmoud said. "You would never see these kind of protests before, not when we had a dictator."

The protests and strikes came a day after Egypt's military leaders sought to return calm and stability to a country still exhilarated by the first fruits of its revolution. But the armed forces also signaled there were limits to how much change they would tolerate, ignoring demonstrators' demands to dismantle Mubarak's institutional legacies.

In its fourth public statement in three days, the Supreme Military Council repeated its promise to oversee a transition to a "democratic and free" Egypt run by civilians. For the time being, however, the generals said they would keep the old order in place, allowing Mubarak's government to stay on in a caretaker role.

They also said Egypt would honor its international treaties, including its peace accord with Israel.

The council statement said the military wanted to meet "the legitimate demands of the people" but was silent on whom, if anyone, it would consult as it maps out Egypt's future.

Several Egyptian intellectuals who had tried to mediate between Mubarak and the protesters during the 18-day uprising said they have been kept in the dark and are worried.