It's the same argument for doctors who apply vaccines they know are unsafe, truck drivers who take pigs to the slaughterhouse, landscapers spraying pesticides on school yards, the maintenance guy who disables the fire alarm so it doesn't go off accidentally; a whole lot of people in general. It just keeps going and going.
The secretary who serves coffee to politicians is technically the state. She exercises authority in her range of tasks.
Except the state is something very specific: the group of people seeking to monopolize decision-making by force over a geographical area. Truck drivers don't do that. Doctors applying vaccines aren't in that category. The maintenance guy isn't that. Neither are the landscapers. In whatever capacity they are liable for their actions, they're not the state.
The secretary serving coffee is technically the state. You're correct. She is employed by that group of people and works, in whatever small way, to facilitate their goal.
That's state's a specific organization, boss. It's not a physical thing, but it is a group of people that can be identified and categorized.