职员
zhíyuán · HSK 7
worker
👔 职 (post, duty) + 员 (member) = a staff member who holds a job post
职 carries the sense of an official post or duty, and 员 marks a person who is a member of a group. Stack them and you get the duty-holding member of an organization: an employee or staff member.
员 — mouth 口 + shell/money 贝 (貝)
Originally a pictograph of a round bronze tripod vessel, with 口 depicting its round opening and 鼎 (later simplified to 貝/贝) showing the vessel itself. The original sense was 'round,' now written 圓/圆. It was borrowed to mean 'member' or 'person in a role,' which became its main modern meaning.