To encourage its employees to give up teleworking, this American company is offering them up to $10,000

While Amazon recently announced that its employees would return to the office in 2025, Cameo is making a tempting offer to employees based at its headquarters in Chicago. The American company, founded in 2017 and which allows fans to order personalized video messages from their favorite celebrities, has decided to offer its employees an annual bonus of up to $10,000 (around €9,550) in exchange for four days of presence per week at its offices. While many workers say they would accept a pay cut to be able to continue working remotely , Cameo hopes the opposite will be true.

In addition to the bonus of up to $10,000, there are free meals, free parking, and access to a gym. Cameo CEO Steven Galanis told CNBC on February 20: “We really wanted to make the HQ a perk, not a punishment. We know that we’re asking [employees] to give up that flexibility, and we wanted to compensate [them] for that.” The quid pro quo doesn’t stop there: while the policy currently only applies to Chicago employees, Cameo has announced that it will cover the relocation costs of those who want to move there and will expand these benefits accordingly.

An opportunity for young, recently hired workers to settle closer to Chicago. "It could be the difference between being able to get an apartment in the city or having to take the train because they live with their parents in the suburbs," hopes Steven Galanis.

Cameo currently employs 50 people, including 26 in Chicago and others in the U.S. and abroad. While its offering is exclusively in Chicago, most of its remote workers are concentrated in New York and Los Angeles, CNBC reports.

Cameo’s Chicago headquarters opened in the summer of 2024, but executives never set a schedule for tracking employee hours. Employees previously reported to the office two or three times in the middle of the week. Galanis hopes the move will revive creativity and speed at the company, and that employees will see that he’s approachable as CEO: “Now they see me every day. … We go for walks, we have lunch together. An intern can come up to me and say, ‘Steven, why haven’t we done this before?’”