“Garden leave” or “gardening leave” is the practice of requiring an employee not to attend the employer’s premises for work during their contractual notice period. Instead, the employee is paid his or her full contractual salary to stay at home. The practice is often used where a senior or key employee resigns in order to join a competitor, sometimes in conjunction with a non-compete clause.
Employers that have not updated restrictive covenants in their employment contracts should do so as the jobs market improves, and...