Humble brag!

That's not humble at all!

My advice: stay away from hammocks...

On my first day of gardening leave ~9 years ago I fell out of one, it hurt quite a bit, wouldn't have happened if I was at work!

I had to struggle from April to July once. You have my utmost sympathy.

Just the summer?  I had 7months once.

Do you get paid on gardening leave?

Yep. The company essentially pays you to not go elsewhere with all your insider knowledge, or that anything you do know will be out of date by the time you start at a competitor.

I had 3 months over the summer of 2001, I got that bored I negotiated it down to 6 weeks in the end, sbut till a glorious six weeks most days in the  Clwyds on the uber MTB tech that was a Marin full suss back then.

Bar stewards would not give me that.

£%&%#%£%£

I found myself out of work once in summer. The world cup was on in Korea. I'd get up, watch three football matches, send off a load of job emails, walk over to the coffee shop for an iced coffee and cake, then go MTBing. Glorious, even though I was running out of money! The last time I was under 80kg too.

I’d love that.  I haven’t not worked for 24 years.  Even had to work 2 jobs during covid 😵‍💫.

I took VR in July last year and had all of August and half of September riding my bike (my new bike paid for by the redundancy money) before going to Australia for 3 weeks where I did more bike riding and watched the World Road Race Championships in Wollongong.

To be fair, the WFH during Covid saw me do a shedload of riding as well and then over winter, work basically let me do flexi hours where I'd go out in daylight then work into the evening when it was cold and dark out.

Simpler times...

It's your fault it's started raining

I was once on 'Critical Site Support' duties for 4 months during the summer meaning I could not be allocated any other work.

I had to be able to get to the client site within 90 minutes at all times.

I spent most the time cycling around the New Forest which was about 30 minutes from the client site.

I got 2 phone calls during the entire time. One was checking they had the right number and the other problem I fixed over the phone while stood next to some ponies. It was only when one of the ponies neighed that I had to do some clever explaining but all was fine. Lovely summer.

Also got sent to LA for a week to do an audit of a company to assess their suitability as a supplier. When I arrived the CEO gave me a USB memory stick containing the US Government's full company audit to assess their suitability for government supply. This was a bit more thorough than anything I could hope to produce in a week so I just swaned around LA for a week in a hire car, staying at a 5 star hotel with £200 per diem,no receipts required. I even got my flight moved from the Friday to Sunday afternoon so I got most the weeknd too.

I'm on a 10 week work Sabbatical, started yesterday, consists of 2 weeks annual leave, 4 weeks paid, 4 weeks unpaid. Not back until end Aug. Happy days. It's a perk the company introduced recently for anyone with over 5 years service. Given I'll be there 30 years in November I think I deserve it 🙂

Likely about to join the OP.  Having joined to launch and sell a new product, after 18 months I’ve been left a mess I can’t sell and am not getting fully paid - and after meetings yesterday I’ve been told “well, it isn’t going to change”.  On top of that I’ve just had “Surprise, you going to UAE”.  As I have a huge anxiety about flying I wouldn’t choose an international job, so now my anxiety is off the scale trying to work out how to say no.

Looking for plan B whilst attending todays financial call deliberately to force the garden leave issue.

Bar stewards would not give me that.

Few years ago a former colleague resigned, fully expecting to be given 3 months garden leave (as was customary). It was then pointed out to her that as she was on a final warning for being catastrophically shit at her job, and that her absence rate was 20%, so there would be little risk to the business and it would be cheaper for the business to make her work her notice and not pay her for the days she likely wouldn’t come in. Think she came in maybe 10 days before just sacking the whole thing off.

6 months paid gardening leave from June to November in 2019. It was ace!

I’m on a 10 week work Sabbatical, started yesterday, consists of 2 weeks annual leave, 4 weeks paid, 4 weeks unpaid. Not back until end Aug. Happy days. It’s a perk the company introduced recently for anyone with over 5 years service. Given I’ll be there 30 years in November I think I deserve it 🙂

Any jobs going?

I had 3 months gardening leave after being made redundant in 1999. Found a job in a totally different industry after a month.

WFH today and just had a coffee sat in the sun on the patio. My boss is pretty sure that there's a valid business reason I can't have a part year contract and work October to March.

Just been made redundant after nearly nine years. Company gone boom. Still at least it's summer! Trying to stay positive!

What is this paid leave thing never had it!?

Where are you based and what do you do?

I was doing design/layout of B2B digital publications in E. Kent.

Enjoy your leave! I'm going to go play on my bike for an hour before it gets too hot then back to the temporary job of job hunting.

I work in  garden centre. Unsure about this reverence for gardening leave.

That lifting compost and gravel bags gets a bit stale.

I would love gardening leave, all I have is redundancy! It's 15 years since I last had to look for a job. Ho hum.

my last place wouldnt let me do that or leave early so it was 3 months of going into the office and being a pain in the arse.  that learned em,