Gardening Leave

Morning All,

I hate my job – nothing new there…I have been offered a new position in a different company, just waiting on the documentation before I hand in my (4 week) notice here.

I’m moving on because current role is awful (poor managment, blame culture, not listening), to the extent that it’s makeing me unwell – my blood pressure medicine has tripled in dose since October last year, i wake at 02.00 and cant get bak to sleep because work is straight into my mind, etc – its time for me to move on.

When i do resign – next week or two hopefully – how do i request garening leave and get it?  GP has made it clear that he will sign me off for a month no bother but i dont really want to resign and then go sick – that doesnt sit well, feels like a d**k move and/or  if they dont let me go, how to i tell hem without saying it that i wont be doing any work wshile you make me attend…

Anyone got any suggestions or idea’s – practical or theoretical (:)) would be great,

thanks,

paul

From what I understand, gardening leave isn’t standard. It is available to people who have ‘sensitive’ info or knowledge of projects. If you aren’t seen as a potential knowledge risk then it isn’t given.

Any holidays you can use to knock the 4 weeks down?

I suspect most companies assume less work will be done by someone who has resigned, so they may offer a deal of some sort.

Doubt you’ll get it. It’s normally issued by the employer to the employee when thier role is being reconsidered or reassigned and the employer is seeking a resolution to the situation.

You could ask, but since you are leaving what’s the point ?

Do you have holiday entitlement left? Take that once notice is handed in.

You could resign, then go off sick because technically you are still employed up until the leave date.

Employers can’t give “bad” references, they can only state facts. They could release sick leave time off but that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

If you ask for it, expect rebuttal so don’t be pissed off… also, if the culture is as bad as you say then expect poor treatment until you leave.

Sounds like you will feel a whole lot better as soon as you hand your notice in.

There can be quite a bit of spite regarding gardening leave, and of course, it depends on your role.  Sounds like the type of place that, if they know you want gardening leave, will deliberately not give it to you out of spite.  You might be better not asking for it at all, and see what they suggest?  It doesn’t sound like you will be doping you any favours.  Is there the potential to saboteur things in your job?

If they don’t want to let you go early, just don’t do much work during your notice period?  Can also a dick move, but might be justified in this scenario.  You don’t have to actively work against them, just relax and don’t do much.  What can they do about it?

…GP has made it clear that he will sign me off for a month no bother

Get signed off sick, then resign while you are off.

No loss to you, life is too short to let a job you hate make you ill.

Think about yourself first and work last, in any situation where your health is concerned.

yep, resign whilst on sick. Seems obvious thing to do?

In my experience, gardening leave is rare and isn’t something you ‘request’, it’s a business decision depending on varying circumstances related to protecting the business and its interests.

But… unless it is getting too and from work that is making you ill, does it really matter if you’re there or not after giving your notice?

The pressure in that job will be zero at that point. If they try and give you crap, just do the bare minimum and they’ll most likely end up letting you go early anyway.

It’s amazing how good you feel when you hand your notice in. Work your hours, take your lunch break and sleep well. Just try not to look too smug!

Cheers lads, you may be right about the rarity of gardening leave, i think i may be remembering when i had it before thru’ redundancy, not resigning.

Im trying to practice mindfullness at my desk just now, concentrating on when i built my Solaris up, going over evey detail of the build and thinnking of what i would change – seems to be working a bit.

thanks,

paul

Employers can’t give “bad” references, they can only state facts

They can give “bad” references provided they have evidence to back it up.

To the OP whilst gardening leave would be your best outcome you have to ask yourself why would the company want to give you it.  If you can’t answer that question then I don’t think you’ll get it.  You could always negotiate to leave before your notice period is finished, assuming you have no leave to take.  You’d be foregoing some pay but it sounds like it would be worth it.  It would also allow you to start at your new post sooner.

I’d see how the notice period goes, surely the stress you’re under will reduce significantly and now you’re also free to give honest criticism/feedback to your management should they continue to treat you poorly etc. Personally I’d relish working out my notice in your situation…

Personally I’d relish working out my notice in your situation…

the thought had crossed my mind…

As above, the moment you hand in your notice, a Zen-like calm will start descending on you. You’ll work your contracted hours, you’ll take lunch, you’ll not give a shit, frankly. Practice your best Gallic shrug.

Your priority is using the next month to boost your physical and mental well-being. Don’t even think about using it to settle scores, right wrongs etc, that will just wind you up, or at least stop you winding down.

I can only echo the above, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll get gardening leave – most employers will want something for your months salary. The only times I’ve seen it given outside a redundancy situation is going to a bitter rival / competitor and then they’ll whack you with conditions akin to house arrest.

For me it’s difficult to switch off and accept that none of it matters anymore, I’ve found myself stressing to finish stuff in the last minutes of my employment before now, knowing full well the fruits of my labour will likely be binned anyway, but try to kick back – once that letter is in, aside from really gross miscounted you’re pretty much unfireable and untouchable. Go to work, say hello, smile sweetly and do SFA, they might offer you your last 2 weeks at home just to be rid of you.

Don’t even think about using it to settle scores, right wrongs etc, that will just wind you up, or at least stop you winding down.

In every other job i have had, I have taken this approach and it has been the right thing to do.  In this one, I am sorely tempted to burn every bridge i have and tell them exactly where to go, which would be the wrong thing to do but it is so tempting…

I’m finishing my current contract at the end of this week. The term demob happy is being used quite a bit :-)

Sometimes burning bridges can be very cathartic. It was for me when I left local authority. I’ve now got a job I like doing, earning more and doing more. No regrets at all.

Might be different if you’re staying in the same industry though.

As above, the moment you hand in your notice, a Zen-like calm will start descending on you. You’ll work your contracted hours, you’ll take lunch, you’ll not give a shit, frankly. Practice your best Gallic shrug.

you don’t have to hand your notice in to live like this ;-)

IME, gardening leave is something you are given, it’s not something you ask for. It’s normally given if you are going to a competitor or someone your company doesn’t want to have access to current info. A waste of space colleague tried asking for it when she resigned, saying that she didn’t have anything to do, so we gave her training so that she did. She also took a lot of the time off sick, so rather than paying her for a month of doing nothing we paid her for about a week IIRC

be carful phoning in sick, the company may choose not to pay you, unless it’s in your contract specifically that they have to, and if you are signed off sick, the new place won’t want you working/it looks less than great.

id go in and enjoy not giving a shit for a month, tbh

If you are happy to be paid for the next month then you should be prepared to work for it.

Gardening leave is usually dictated by the company to get you away from commercially sensitive projects, or just to get you out of the building. You don’t get to decide.  If you ask for it they’ll probably say no unless you’re such a liability they want you out the door. If you’re only on 4 weeks notice it’s very unlikely as you’re probably not important enough to the extent that putting you on gardening leave will protect the company.
It’s usually reserved for business critical people and one element of it is the anti-competition issue. The notion is that you can’t go and work for the rival company immediately, which annoys you and them, plus your brain will turn to cheese thus rendering you useless when you eventually move to their rivals.. or something like that.

Gardening leave is not something you request it is something the company request of you.

Resign the stress will be right off at that point just work contracted hours and the minimum requirement of the job and no more.

I wouldn’t rush to leave early, although still working it is time to turn stuff around as noted above.

Of course your employer could be a total dick and make life very hard for yo if possible u in the last 4 weeks at which point go off sick, but personally I would avoid that

The only times I’ve seen it given outside a redundancy situation is going to a bitter rival / competitor

Pretty much this, or in situations where having you around may cause unrest / disruptive influence (usually redundancy situation where they don’t want you wandering round the building telling people what ****s the management are)

In the case of the former – I don’t think you are obliged to say who you are resigning in favour of? So if they ask you, an answer of ‘I’d prefer not to say at this point’ might just sow enough seeds of doubt….

In the case of the latter – you surely wouldn’t do that, would you ;-)

And to pre-empt anyone who thinks manipulating the situation to get given GL is immoral (you’re being paid for the 4 weeks so you should work them, etc.) – the company’s made them ill, at that point the obligation stops in my mind

If you’re stressed enough to be tripling your meds and your GP has made it clear he’d be happy to sign you off for a month, you definitely need some time to destress before you start at the new place.

As above, you may well be able to do this working out your notice, just in the knowledge that you’re out of there.

So hand your notice in, and if after a week or two it’s obvious that the place, the people and the work are so toxic you’re still not able to wind down, take the time off sick, ride your bike, get a couple of house/garden jobs done and sit in the sun with a cold one.

Good luck with this bit and the new job!

But… unless it is getting too and from work that is making you ill, does it really matter if you’re there or not after giving your notice?

The pressure in that job will be zero at that point. If they try and give you crap, just do the bare minimum and they’ll most likely end up letting you go early anyway.

Some employers just create a truly toxic atmosphere…

Get signed off sick, then resign while you are off.

No loss to you, life is too short to let a job you hate make you ill.

Think about yourself first and work last, in any situation where your health is concerned.

It’s quite possible the employers won’t want yet another mental health issue laid on them…. which from the OP’s post sounds like it would be a possibility.

dunc and Jonv said much the same while I was typing.

this is bang on though:

the company’s made them ill, at that point the obligation stops in my mind

A word of warning viz the going on the sick thing, if you need it, take it, but… if not you might want to make sure you’re reference has gone over, they usually follow a few weeks after you start and in these litigious days are usually just a ‘factual reference’ which means – Name, dates of employment, skills and responsibilities of the role you had (which may be different to what you actually did or didn’t do) reason for leaving (sometimes) and number of sick days.

A mate of mine was put in a delicate situation, resigned from a job after getting an offer of another one – the new employer had a minimum requirement of no more than 2 incidences of sickness in the previous 12 months (production line work and a major hassle if someone is off sick) – reference came over with 3 on, offer of employment withdrawn.

If your current place wants to be a prick, 20 days sick over whatever you’ve currently got won’t go over well unless you’ve told them about your current situation.

You could ask for shorter notice, or waive notice (and PILON). Company will want to see a handover, but there is often little they can do to hold you to it.

Go on sick, resign, offer them reduced notice so you can start your new job and save them paying sick leave (assuming it is paid).

Are you going to a competitor? That usually gets you out the door pretty sharpish.

As others have said you will feel better when you hand in your notice.

I would just have an open conversation with whoever you need to hand it to – explain that you’d rather not work all your notice and while the doc says he will sign you off sick, you’d rather not to.

Worse case they ask you to work it all – I would work my contracted hours and you will feel better than now

Best case they pay gardening leave – unlikely as others have said

Most likely – you do some work to handover and leave early

It’s usually worthwhile acting professionally no matter how badly they have treated you.

If the income is important to you then might be wise checking your contract/employee handbook, most places I have worked do not pay sick days as soon as the notice period has been started. Might not be that way at your place but I know it shocked people who had left other places when their final wage slip came through and it was a lot less than they expected.

It is available to people who have ‘sensitive’ info or knowledge of projects.

This. It’s to make sure the knowledge you have of any given project is sufficiently out of date by the time you start a new role.

This was about 15 or so years ago at a previous job but there was a guy in your situation that was fed up and wanted to start a new job straight away.

He gave them 2 options, either let him leave there and then or he was going to walk into the office of one of the managers he didn’t like and knock him out so they would have to sack him anyway.

Probably not the best way to go about leaving but it was pretty effective!

As has been said, depends on the circumstances. My wife was recently made redundant and they immediately put her on gardening leave for 6 weeks then paid up the last 6. Luckily she was already interviewing for a job she ended up getting.

Another bloke at the old spot applied for a different job at the new place and also was successful. Old place made him work his notice.

Personally I would see if they will grant it but if not get the sick note.

depends a bit what you do – no chance of GL in my job :-(

You could probably mildly amuse yourself though.  Perhaps you could start asking the IT people about how to get large amounts of data onto a USB stick really quickly?

Check your mandatory training – any courses you’re required to attend ?  Seek a health/safety assessment if you’re a computer user

In the end, just having somebody there behaving as though they’re repeatedly saying “man, I’m glad to be getting out of here” (and actually saying it, obvz) might unsettle the remaining captives so much that they want you out

Well, the deed is done.  Boss is not too happy.  There are two people who can do my job here.  The other guy walked out 2 weeks ago, for the same reson i am leaving.  In 4 weeks time, they wont have anyone who can do my job…

i have been ask to write a complete “how to” so someone can do my job

i said that there is no way i can do that in time and that although my notice is 4 weeks, i would prefer to leave ASAP due to the afore mentioned health issues.  He said himself that it may well have a detrimental effect on my health and therefore my attendance in the next 4 weeks, if they just start pilling on the work.

As mentioned above  – my gallic shrug is now impeccable :)

I’m pretty sure the term is garden leave, incorrectly changed to gardening leave by most people.

Carry on.

I’m pretty sure the term is garden leave, incorrectly changed to gardening leave by most people.

I understood that it meant you couldn’t go into work, but couldn’t work for anyone else, so the employee would go and spend time pottering in the garden, doing the gardening, rather than being in the office?

I’m pretty sure the term is garden leave, incorrectly changed to gardening leave by most people.

Carry on.

It’s a pretty interchangeable, it’s not really an official term – technically you’re suspended, but it’s used when you’ve been suspended for the sake of confidentially or as a favour rather than because you’ve been, or are going to be sacked.

In Banking (where the term is usually used, along with the Civil Service) it was considered a favour, looking after your mates when they’ve been laid off – the redundancy terms with banking used to be so kind they were called ‘golden bullets’. Think 3 to 4 weeks pay for every full year worked, not the usual 1, 3 months gardening leave so you can find something before your salary stops, keep your car and phone whilst you’re gardening (in case you’re needed in work of course ;) ) and usually a recruitment consultant to tidy up the CV and find you some things to apply for.

Its a “garden” between current and next employer. Typically used when moving to a competitor: you are still employed and paid by your current employer for the duration, but restricted from taking up the post with the new. Hence Garden leave.