It basically refers to a leave period where the employee is leaving the company (either voluntary resignation or being terminated) and is not allowed to work, but still being paid. During this period, the employee is not allowed to start a new full time employment cause technically the employee is still a full time employee at the current company.
Now, the person is not allowed to go back to work at the current company, not allowed to start work at the new company, hence the person has nothing to do but ‘gardening’ at home, so to speak.
Normally there are 2 circumstances that will lead an employer’s decision to grant Garden Leave to the employee:
1. The employee is going to join a competitor to prevent the employee from accessing further information especially sensitive ones and bringing them over.
2. The employee is going to be a poor influence to the existing team. Either their lack of enthusiasm or half-heartedness is going to bring the team morale down further. Or even the extend to prevent a sabotage! In this case, most of the time, the company also does not see any value in this employee staying further.
Either way, the company’s goal is to protect the business. No hard feelings.
All the best!
Bimbo
#GardenLeave #HRMatters #ItsJustBusiness
