Glossary · Hiring & terms
Gardening leave
Gardening leave is notice served away from work: the departing employee stays employed and paid, protecting confidential information and relationships.
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Common for senior and client-facing roles. The employee remains employed and bound by their contract but doesn't come in, which can delay when a new employer is able to onboard them.
The defining feature of gardening leave is that pay continues while the work stops. Dutch law sets out the general principle in its own terms: the Civil Code keeps the employer liable for the agreed pay when the employee does not do the agreed work, unless that should reasonably fall to the employee.
Three misreadings recur. It is not holiday, because the contract and its duties run on. It is not a non-compete clause, which restricts what someone may do after employment ends. And it is not a suspension pending an investigation, which may also keep someone away from work but serves a different purpose and need have nothing to do with notice. Its closest neighbour is the notice period, all or part of which it may take up; the non-compete, where one exists, may follow it.
In practice
Gardening leave starts once notice has been given, by either side: the employer invokes a clause in the contract, or the two sides agree to it, and the employee stops attending work. Systems access is withdrawn, clients and files are handed over, and the departure is announced internally. Employment continues, so pay and contractual benefits continue with it, along with the duties the contract imposes, confidentiality among them, and, where the contract says so, an obligation not to work elsewhere meanwhile.
For the hiring side, gardening leave is the practical reason a senior start date can sit a long way from the signed offer: the date follows the end of the notice period, not the signature. Shortening, waiving, or buying out the period is a matter for the departing employer and the contract, though the incoming employer often has a hand in the negotiation. Whether time on gardening leave counts towards any subsequent non-compete, so that the two run partly together rather than end to end, depends on the jurisdiction and on how the contract is drafted.
For the person leaving, the period is quiet but not idle. They remain an employee, bound by confidentiality and often barred from working elsewhere, so preparation for the next seat has to stay on the right side of both contracts: reading in on the new company is one thing, taking decisions for it is another. A counteroffer can still arrive in this window. Whatever happens in it, the new employer plans around the leaving date, not the first day of the leave.
Common questions
- Do you get paid during gardening leave?
- Yes: gardening leave is paid, because the employee is still employed. Salary and contractual benefits continue until the notice period ends, and the obligations of the contract continue with them, including confidentiality and, where the contract imposes it, a bar on working elsewhere meanwhile. Which elements of a package keep running, bonus and equity in particular, depends on the contract and the jurisdiction.
- Is gardening leave the same as a non-compete?
- No. Gardening leave runs during the notice period, while the person is still employed and still being paid; a non-compete applies after employment ends, and whether it is compensated varies by jurisdiction and contract. Gardening leave restricts activity by keeping someone employed but away from the work; a non-compete restricts where they may go next. The two can appear in the same contract, and enforceability of the non-compete is a separate question.
- How long does gardening leave last?
- It lasts no longer than the notice period, because gardening leave is a way of serving notice rather than a separate entitlement: the contract's notice sets the ceiling. Whether the employer can impose the leave, and for how much of the notice, turns on the clause and on local law. Where a senior contract carries a long notice period, the leave can run the length of it.
- Can you start a new job while on gardening leave?
- Usually only with the departing employer's agreement. The employee is still employed and bound by the contract; where it bars working elsewhere during notice, starting a new role breaches it, and where it is silent, the duties owed to a current employer still apply, how far depending on local law. An earlier start is normally reached by agreement, shortening or waiving the remaining notice, which is why the incoming employer often has a hand in that negotiation.
Sources
Placed, not posted.
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