If you can't see how staff distinguishes itself from players, then I don't know what to say...You can see plenty of evidence in real life. Players have huge salaries, so they can survive without some paychecks (during lockout, Kirilenko turned down the salary in CSKA and Tony Parker took a much lower paycheck in Asvel) while staff cannot.
If it helps you, try to imagine players as millionaires and staff as regular, blue-collar workers.