Garden Leave

Garden Leave, sometimes also called Patio Leave, refers to an employee who is under notice (whether because he has been dismissed or because he has resigned) not being required to work during his notice period.

While on Garden Leave, an employee is not permitted to work for another employer, but receives full pay subject to tax and national insurance as normal.

Garden Leave can be used by employers to protect their business interests by keeping employees under notice out of the business and preventing them from working for a competitor straight away. By the time the notice period, and hence the Garden Leave, is over, the employee’s knowledge of the business will have started to become out of date and will pose less of a threat to the employer’s business.

It is very common for sales people to be put on Garden Leave when they resign.