Cash and Culture
Salary is a blunt instrument. Culture is the other side of the employment exchange. In this Studio essay, I explore cash and culture as two sides of the system that shapes why people join, stay, and leave organisations.
Editor’s note: This piece sits within Cultivated Studio as a mental model for the employment value exchange. It frames salary and culture as two sides of a system — economic and behavioural factors that shape why people join, stay, and leave organisations.
Cash and Culture
Not every organisation can take money off the table.
Most shouldn’t try.
Salary is a blunt instrument.
It attracts attention, but rarely creates attachment.
Over time, I’ve come to think of employment as a set of scales.
On one side: cash—salary, bonuses, pensions, benefits.
On the other: everything else.
