Advice on garden leave

[Longtimelurker2024]

Hello

i am looking for some advice please.

i have been an full time employee for 5+ years, whilst on annual leave I found another job which I accepted.

upon returning to work I was going to hand my notice in but they had already found out through the grapevine and instantly put me on garden leave.

my contract states they have to give me 1 week per year notice so I am on 5 weeks paid garden leave.

i only have to give 1 weeks notice to leave.

my new job are more than understanding and will wait the 5 weeks but it is day 2 and I am pulling my hair out already.

as it is me that wants to leave, on good terms, can they put me on garden leave for 5 weeks or can I hand in one weeks notice?

any advice is appreciated

You need to check your contract. If you have a PILON clause, you could be released early and get paid...if they feel generous

thank you

PILON isn’t an option sadly.

I am not bothered about the pay it is the time off that I would rather not have.

Can you ask your HR team? Nothing bad can come of it and either they say you can resign with 1 weeks notice or they explain why not and you wait.

The fact they have put you on gardening leave and given you notice does not prevent you handing in your notice and cutting the gardening leave short.

Just hand your notice in...

Hand your notice in. What they've done sounds absurd.

Are you sure you want to give up a month's worth of paid leave with no obligation to work? Gardening leave is very standard and most people would jump at the chance to do this.

You could do anything you want to and all the things you never have the time or energy for due to work. Hobbies, get ready for Christmas, day trips out, sorting the house out, join a gym, do some preparation for your new role, read, you could even go on holiday if you don't have any other commitments, eg DC.

I'd be making the most of my 5 weeks off tbh. How many times in life does that happen?!

Garden leave is a buffer between your old job and the new job. Normally it's to allow them to manage informing your clients and contacts. Are you moving to a similar role with a competitor?

btw, have you figured out how they heard about your new job through the grapevine?

Wow, thanks for all your replies.

our industry grapevine is brilliant, everyone knows everything😂

I will see how it goes this week, there is no logic on what they have done as I can’t do a handover whilst at home, and I am more than willing to do one.

If you only have one week notice then you only have to take one week "gardening" between the jobs

If they want to pay you for 5 more fool them

Personally I would take the money and the break. Use it to go on another holiday!!!

You don’t want to take 5 weeks paid leave? Maybe get house sparkling clean before starting new job, spring clean your cupboards, chance to spring clean your wardrobe and go shopping for new clothes, get on top of gardening. Not sure if you have kids at school, if not, go for a short notice holiday somewhere fun as you will likely be at new job for a year before taking leave. Catch up on Netflix watchlist. SO many things to do on full pay😁.