Garden leave meaning: paid to stay away
Garden leave means you're still employed and paid during your notice period, but you're told to stay home instead of working. You can't start your next job yet either. It's a British term, used mostly for people who could take clients or plans to a rival.
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Mia's on garden leave until March, Theo, so she can't start at the rival yet.
What did they mean?
Filed under F and G jargon.
What garden leave means
Garden leave meaning in plain words
Garden leave means you stay employed on full pay through your notice, but you’re sent home instead of working it out. You can’t start anywhere else until your last day. You’re also asked to keep out of the office and away from clients.
The British also say gardening leave, and dictionaries list both as UK terms.
Why a company pays people to do nothing
Companies pay for garden leave to keep someone who’s leaving away from clients and plans until their inside knowledge is out of date. A person joining a competitor knows this quarter’s prices and when each client’s contract renews. They’ve seen next year’s plan too.
Why a garden
It’s called garden leave because you finally have time for the garden. Who first called it that is unknown.
Garden leave in practice
Five months in the garden
The best-known recent garden leave comes from English soccer. In February 2024, Newcastle United’s sporting director, Dan Ashworth, began gardening leave.
He spent five months on it, then started at Manchester United on July 1. That job ended in December, also after five months.
The email to the team
Subject: Team update
Hi all, Priya has resigned to join another firm and starts
garden leavepaid time at home from today, until her last day on November 30. Please send her client queries to Tom, who has her account notes. Her laptop has been collected, so please don’t forward anything to her personal email.
What the rest of the team hears
The rest of the team gets an email like the one above, and the leaver’s clients land on their desks that same morning.
What garden leave is like
What you can and can’t do
Your garden leave letter sets the rules. It often asks you to:
- stay reachable in case someone has a question
- hand back company equipment
- stay away from clients
- keep company information to yourself
Outside those rules, the time is yours, on full pay. The new job has to wait until your notice ends. The weeding doesn’t.
Garden leave, notice and severance
Notice and garden leave both run up to your last day. Severance is paid after it.
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Notice period | The time from your resignation, or your employer’s notice, to your last day |
| Garden leave | The notice period spent at home, paid and kept away from work |
| Pay in lieu of notice, or PILON | Your notice paid as money instead of worked, so the job ends at once |
| Severance | A payment for losing your job, after it ends |
If a RIF letter keeps paying you until your last day but tells you not to work, that’s garden leave, even if the letter never calls it that. HR still files the layoff as an involuntary termination.
The out-of-office question
You’re still officially on leave, so set an out-of-office message. Name the person covering for you, and say nothing about where you’re going next.
The other ways to be kept
Garden leave pays you to leave slowly, and golden handcuffs pay you to stay. Of all the corporate jargon for leaving a job, garden leave is the only term with a hobby in it.
Garden leave in a sentence
Mia's on garden leave until March, Theo, so she can't start at the rival yet.
He resigned to join a rival, so he's on garden leave for three months, fully paid.
During garden leave, you may not contact clients or start another job.
Wendell resigned in March but is on garden leave until June, so his replacement already sits at his desk.
Questions about garden leave
What does it mean if someone is on garden leave?
They've resigned or been told they're leaving, and the employer is paying them to stay home until the end of their notice. They still work for the company on paper, so they can't start the next job yet.
Why would someone take garden leave?
Usually because the employer sends them. It keeps someone who's joining a rival away from clients and colleagues until the notice runs out, and out of current plans.
What's the difference between garden leave and severance?
Garden leave is your normal pay for the rest of your notice, while you're still employed. Severance is a payment after the job has ended. You can get one, the other or both.
How long is a typical garden leave?
As long as the notice period it replaces, so it depends on the contract. Senior people with long notice can spend months in the garden. One English soccer executive spent five months there in 2024.
What are the rules for garden leave?
Your employer tells you not to work for part or all of your notice period, and you stay employed on the same pay and contract benefits until it ends. Any other rules come from your contract and the letter that starts your garden leave.