In today's Buzzword Mix, our buzzword is Garden Leave.

Garden, leave,两个词都非常简单的词, but what does it mean?

And if I tell you it is actually a professional word used at workplace, would you be surprised?

如果你是外企, 特别是英联邦系的这种企业的话, 你肯定听过这个词.

So first of all, let's look at the word leave, l-e-a-v-e.

In professional context, it simply means that you take time off from work.

这个leave在职场英语里面它是假期的意思. For example annual leave 年假, maternity leave 孕产假.

But hang on, what is garden leave? 花园假期或者园艺假期, really? Does any company actually give that?

01 花园假期真的存在么？

Well, it turns out they do, but it means something very different.

A garden leave refers to the period of time during which an employee is mandated to refrain from attending work usually following their resignation or termination.

对于这种花园假期或者园艺假期, 它的定义是一个员工被强制不能来上班, 通常是在一个人提出辞呈 resignation, 或者是termination, 公司要跟ta解除这种劳动关系, 也就是要炒掉ta.

Hearing this some of you might think great, so they sent me home and they will still pay me?

Well. There are lots of restrictions.

So throughout the period, the employee maintains their employment status within the company, but is not expected to carry out any work duties.

Oftentimes, they are also not allowed to start any other employment with other companies during the garden leave.

这里面的限制是, 虽然你不用给公司做什么事情, 但是通常来说你也不允许去找别的工作.

It's kind of like you're stuck in between stage of the transition period.

02 为什么要叫做“花园假期”?

And why is it called garden leave?

That's because during this transition period like this, the employee cannot work for other companies, but they also cannot work for their current company.

They are likely to spend their time pursuing things that are not work-related, like hobbies, such as gardening.

Hence the term garden leave.

之所以会叫garden leave, 就是因为这个时候他们既不能给自己现在的公司工作, 按照这个规定他们也不能去找工作, 或给别的公司工作;

所以基本上就是待在家里做点其他的事情. 很多人可能用这个时间去照顾照顾自己的院子, 去做点什么园艺的事, 种点花种点草的, 所以就叫做garden leave.

Salaries and benefits, they will continue until the end of the leave period.

这段时间是要照发薪酬的.

Garden leave or garden is a term most commonly used in the financial industry in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Although you will also see it in some other countries, while the name "garden leave" may sound pleasant, some of you might think it's a great thing hearing all of these benefits.

And in fact, employee may sometimes prefer to serve their notice time relaxing at home rather than being in the workplace.

While all of these are true, the restrictive nature and negative implications of this leave can make it less than ideal.

虽然 garden leave 是一个看上去很美或者听起来很美的一个事儿, 等着公司辞退自己, 或者等着跟公司解约钱还可以照拿, 还可以在家里休息;

但实际上因为它的negative implications或restrictive nature, 它的限制性以及它的负面影响, 对于一个真正想要打拼自己事业的人来说, 都未必是一件好事.

That's because garden leave is sometimes considered to be a euphemism for being suspended and can be perceived to have negative connotations such as the employee being unfit for anything other than tending to their garden.

这主要是因为garden leave它其实就是一个委婉的说法, 只不过是公司不想直说 “在停你的职”, 所以他们用 garden leave 这样 “很美丽”的说法, 在你的履历上看起来一定不是特别光彩的一笔, 会让人觉得你不能胜任这份工作.

So you've been put on garden leave.

03 为什么人们会被放“花园假”？

Why people are put on garden leave？

The primary reason for doing so is to safeguard against possible detrimental actions or behaviour that the employee might indulge in during their notice period.

当一个人他请辞或者说公司要解雇他的时候, 在这种规矩办事的公司都会有一个 notice period也就是离职通知期, 有的公司是比如一个月/两个月/三个月都有, 根据每个公司的规章制度不一样;

Garden leave就是为了保证在 notice period, 这个员工不要给公司有意无意的带来更多的麻烦.

More specifically, the employer may fear that the employee could become uncooperative or that they may negatively influence the working environment and other employees.

比如说公司可能会担心员工在离职通知期的这段期间不合作, 或者说故意搞差公司的工作环境等等, 影响别的员工.

The employer may also prefer that the employee limit contact with clients for fear that they may persuade clients to follow them to their new employer.

Another reason for implementing a garden leave is that employee may have access to up to date information that could be beneficial to the employers competitors.

So placing an employee on garden leave could help ensure that by the time the employee is contractually free, they would have been out of the loop long enough to reduce any possible threat.

The recent case I've heard about someone being put on garden leave is because of what this employee did cost a huge scandal and subsequent PR crisis for the company and then he's been put on garden leave.

我最新听到的一个garden leave的案例, 是由于员工闹出了一场scandal, 闹出了一场丑闻, 所以导致公司形象受损.

公司出现了一个PR crisis, 一个公关危机, 为了不要马上解雇ta让这件事情闹得更大, 公司决定冷处理就让ta garden leave了.

04 “花园假”有哪些利和弊？

Now let's look at some of the pros and cons of garden leave for both employers and employees.

For employers, there's a number of reason why a company may consider implementing a garden leave.

It is ultimately still a defense mechanism, 尽管我们觉得 garden leave这个公司好好, 还给我发钱, 但实际上公司只是一个自保的行为.

With a garden leave, they can ensure that this employee will be available for any queries or transitional needs.

This will also prevent them from stealing customers from the company ensure proper transition and prevent the employee’s access to certain sensitive information.

The cons are also very obvious. Garden leave is often expensive, especially if you're putting someone in senior management position on garden leave, then you have to pay a lot.

And also this pay will not generate any productivity. It might also require you to adhere to complicated and ever changing laws that may restrict some aspects of garden leave.

而且可能中间的一些法律性的相关的这些事宜都非常的复杂.

And this may also negatively impact perception of future prospective employees.也可能影响到公司的声誉, 让其他人不太敢来你这个公司.

For employees, the pros are also quite obvious.

You receive paycheck for a period of time and you don't have to do any work for this. Although you are not allowed to find another job, you can still have some initial contact;

and as for the drawbacks for the employees, if this garden leave experience is put on your CV, it’s not really a very positive track record.

It will also stagnate your career development, especially if you're put on a very long garden leave.

And some people, especially people who work for personal satisfaction or they focus on sense of achievement, they might feel like they're not really earning their paycheck.

So that is garden leave. Now let's move on to the sample sentence.

例句示范

Sample Sentence：

-Following the scandal with the client, the senior manager was put on garden leave.