League of Legends studio Riot Games offers new hires cash to quit with "Dodge Queue" program

Sometimes, even a dream job doesn't work out quite as planned. Maybe it's more mundane and soul-deadening than you expected, or maybe all your new coworkers are jerks, or maybe you're a jerk who just can't play nicely with others. Regardless of the specifics, it happens sometimes. But if that dream job happens to be at Riot Games, the studio responsible for League of Legends , at least you won't have to go away empty-handed.

Riot also hopes the new program will help reinforce its internal culture by helping "self-identified mismatches move on in an open, positive and constructive way," instead of toughing it out for a paycheck. "Rather than allow mismatches to fester, we want to resolve them quickly," it said. "This is good for the company, and good for the professional."

The idea actually came from Zappos, an online shoe and clothing company that was acquired by Amazon in 2009. Riot acknowledged that it seemed "a bit nutty" at the time and I thought the same about "Queue Dodge" at first, but on further consideration I think it's actually a pretty good idea. It's a safety net: An unhappy employee is not going to be a good employee, so making it easier to walk away is going to be better for everyone in the long run.

TOPICS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.