To be clear: I don’t think suppressing pay is a suboptimal way to foster a strong culture. I think driving to low salaries is sign-negative for this goal.
I can tell you that my superiors tried to make the ‘meaningful’ nature of my work more salient when conditions and compensation were unsatisfactory—it leaves an awful aftertaste. Simple economic models would’ve supported their perspective: surely satisfaction from mission alignment can substitute for more material incentives. However, my experience and decision making in response to my employer, dangling meaning in front of me, would be better explained in the vernacular of lefty sociologist types: alienation, resentment, and distrust.
The concept of discounted-pay signaling mission-commitment, has the potential to be harmful when you realize coworkers, not just employers, might use it to evaluate one another (actual ex.: “This is just a hobby for Person A, they’re spouse makes X—they don’t really have to work. But Person B is actually committed, her electricity got cut off the other day!”).
You mentioned elsewhere in this thread that employer hiring/negotiating strategies can introduce issues of justice—I completely agree: a creeping sentiment arose in my former org that the organization was biased towards hiring privileged individuals, this lead to a subtle faction lines being drawn. Some people believed they knew who were hired by merit vs. convenience.
No doubt the org’s culture was strong, but it wasn’t necessarily best suited towards making a desirable workplace or achieving mission aims.
I hope the above examples weren’t too tangential—the point I’m trying to make is that while economic models have their place, organizations dynamics and culture are messy and complex. Trying to shape culture through salary directly may be just too blunt an instrument, it can have unintended consequences in individual cases that are too unique to context to be captured by trendlines in aggregate data.
You mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the validity of maintaining a healthy distinction between work and your personal life—I couldn’t agree more.
Related question: what are ways that EA organizations can foster strong cultures that don’t involve low salaries?
To be clear: I don’t think suppressing pay is a suboptimal way to foster a strong culture. I think driving to low salaries is sign-negative for this goal.
I can tell you that my superiors tried to make the ‘meaningful’ nature of my work more salient when conditions and compensation were unsatisfactory—it leaves an awful aftertaste. Simple economic models would’ve supported their perspective: surely satisfaction from mission alignment can substitute for more material incentives. However, my experience and decision making in response to my employer, dangling meaning in front of me, would be better explained in the vernacular of lefty sociologist types: alienation, resentment, and distrust.
The concept of discounted-pay signaling mission-commitment, has the potential to be harmful when you realize coworkers, not just employers, might use it to evaluate one another (actual ex.: “This is just a hobby for Person A, they’re spouse makes X—they don’t really have to work. But Person B is actually committed, her electricity got cut off the other day!”).
You mentioned elsewhere in this thread that employer hiring/negotiating strategies can introduce issues of justice—I completely agree: a creeping sentiment arose in my former org that the organization was biased towards hiring privileged individuals, this lead to a subtle faction lines being drawn. Some people believed they knew who were hired by merit vs. convenience.
No doubt the org’s culture was strong, but it wasn’t necessarily best suited towards making a desirable workplace or achieving mission aims.
I hope the above examples weren’t too tangential—the point I’m trying to make is that while economic models have their place, organizations dynamics and culture are messy and complex. Trying to shape culture through salary directly may be just too blunt an instrument, it can have unintended consequences in individual cases that are too unique to context to be captured by trendlines in aggregate data.
You mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the validity of maintaining a healthy distinction between work and your personal life—I couldn’t agree more.