This Company Pays Its Employees $25,000 To Quit - No Strings Attached - Even If They Were Just Hired

Riot Games, the maker of the hugely popular PC game "League of Legends," pays unhappy employees up to $25,000 to quit their jobs - even if they just joined the company. The company does this because it doesn't want to keep staffers who are struggling, or who aren't a good fit with the company culture.

"Rather than allow mismatches to fester, we want to resolve them quickly. This is good for the company, and good for the professional. ... we'll learn from this and make better hiring decisions as a result," the company said in a blog post announcing the program.

The payment essentially solves that long, dragged-out process that frequently occurs when managers suspect a new hire isn't going to work out but it feels "too soon" to actually pull the trigger.

For unhappy employees, it's almost a dream come true. Who hasn't sometimes wished they'd be paid to go away?

The offer has some strings. It's only available to North America staff for now, and they have to elect to take the package (which Riot Games has named "Queue Dodge") within the first 60 days of employment. Staff who opt for it will get 10% of their salary up to $25,000. There is a hiring crunch in tech right now, and jobs for qualified programmers and developers can easily start in the six-figure range. Although, it would still be regarded as a huge error if RG had hired someone for around $250,000 and then lost that hire in the first two months.

"Now, we don't want to actively push people out or dare them to leave, but we do want to provide a well-lit, safe exit path," the company says. RG has more than 800 staff worldwide.

Two other companies famously have versions of this. Zappos pays staff $2,000 if they want to quit and Amazon pays $5,000 if they want to quit, for pretty much the same reason: They don't want people who are failing to drag down the business simply because they need a paycheck.