The Chinese image and camera manufacturer Insta360 is giving away golden keycaps worth up to $45,000 (about 40,000 euros) as a reward to top employees.
What is the company giving away? On this year’s “Programmer’s Day” in China, on October 24, Insta360 awarded a total of 21 golden keycaps (so-called keycaps) to outstanding employees. The most valuable one – a spacebar – weighs 35.02 grams and was recently estimated to be worth around 320,000 Yuan (~40,000 euros).
In total, about 55 of these golden keycaps have been given away over the years (via TomsHardware).
Why is the company giving these gifts? According to company founder Liu Jingkang, the initiative serves not primarily as a financial bonus, but as a symbol. According to South China Morning Post , the founder and vice president of Insta360 believes that every keystroke in the company somehow turns “stone into gold”. Gold, according to him, represents permanence and reliability.
Insta360 also cultivates its own “gold culture”: For example, according to SCMP, there were gold stickers for all employees for the 10th anniversary, gold coins were awarded for marriages or births, and even entire gold bars were given for competitions.
However, large companies like Insta360 do not rely solely on kindness when it comes to such gifts and benefits in the workplace. Various studies show that work behavior is generally enhanced by forms of recognition. Gifts, like in the case of Insta360, are a well-known means of increasing satisfaction and motivation (e.g. via American Economic Review).
Generally, recognitions and awards for employees are rather rare. Currently, many companies are cutting positions rather than providing awards. The CEO of OpenAI predicts a bleak scenario for the future: The CEO of ChatGPT says: AI will destroy jobs that are not ‘real work’
