- The celebrity video messaging company Cameo is giving workers $10,000 raises to return to the office.
- CEO Steven Galanis said the raise and other perks have boosted productivity and recruitment efforts.
- Galanis told BI that coming to the office requires more of workers, so it “makes sense” to pay more.
The celebrity video messaging company Cameo this week rolled out $10,000 raises for employees returning to work in-office four days a week at its Chicago headquarters.
CEO Steven Galanis told Business Insider the raises and other perks announced this week — such as catered lunch, paid parking, and a free gym membership — have immediately boosted productivity and recruitment efforts.
Chicago-based workers all attended the first four required days in office without absences, they completed more sales outreach together in just a few days than they had in the previous six months, and the move has helped them recruit new employees, he said.
“It’s been pretty amazing to watch the reception that we’ve seen from applicants,” Galanis said. “People are coming out of the woodwork that want to work for us now, and ex-employees want to come back, which is awesome.”
Cameo, which has gone through three rounds of highly publicized and contentious layoffs since the COVID-19 pandemic, now employs 50 people, with about half living in the Chicago area, Galanis said.
Those who don't live within commuting distance of Chicago aren't eligible for the raise unless they move there, and will not be required to report to the office, he said. If Cameo sets up satellite locations in other cities in the future, Galanis said the option for an in-office work raise would apply to them, as well.
Galanis said he believes the company thrives on in-office brainstorming and participation, but he wanted to try to lure his workers back into the company headquarters organically.
"We really wanted this to be a FOMO-inducing perk versus a punishment," Galanis said."I believe if we're requiring you to come in four days a week, we are literally asking more out of you than if you didn't have to. So, to me, if we're asking more out of you, it totally makes sense that we should pay you more."
The $10,000 raise stands in contrast to other companies' RTO mandates, though Galanis said he has a preference for in-office collaboration shared by many top executives.
JPMorgan Chase's CEO, Jamie Dimon, last week made headlines for a viral, expletive-laden rant against working from home. In it, he said he didn't care how many of the banking giant's employees signed a petition against its five-day return-to-office mandate that takes effect next month.
"Don't waste time on it," Dimon said. "I don't care how many people sign that f—ing petition."
Other major companies, such as Starbucks, have threatened employees with termination if they refuse to comply with RTO orders, Bloomberg first reported in October.
Still, some major return-to-office rollouts have been bumpy. As Business Insider previously reported, Amazon delayed its RTO initiative for some employees because it didn't have enough workspace for returning employees.
Galanis said he understands the vitriol over working from home espoused by some executives — "what Jamie said is something that myself and many other CEOs have felt before or talked about behind closed doors," he said — and he gets the need for some extra large companies to be more strict in their approach to returning to the office. That just wasn't for him, he said.
"I can't judge what's the right thing for another company's culture," Galanis said. "But I know the way our company is, and I know how much we cherish our employees and so this, for us, was the right approach."