The Clock Between Yes and Monday
A signed offer and a filled seat are separated by a clock neither side owns. What gardening leave is, what it is not, and what it does to both calendars.
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The offer is agreed on a Thursday, and agreed properly: the principal is certain, the executive is certain, the terms took one revision rather than five. Then somebody asks when the new leader can start, and the answer is not a date. It is a season.
Nobody has changed their mind. A third party absent from every conversation so far has become the only one who can set the calendar: the departing employer, acting through a clause written years ago into a contract nobody in the room has read. Most people call the whole of that interval gardening leave, using one word for three different instruments, which is why it keeps surprising both sides of a hire that went well.
The interval, precisely
Gardening leave is notice served away from work: the departing employee stays employed and stays paid, and does not come in. It begins once notice has been given, by either side: the employer invokes a clause, or the two sides agree, and attendance stops. Systems access is withdrawn, clients and files are handed to whoever is taking them, and the departure is announced internally, usually before the person has finished deciding how to tell anyone.
What does not stop is the contract. Employment continues, so pay and contractual benefits continue with it, and so do the duties the contract imposes: confidentiality among them, and, where the contract says so, an obligation not to work elsewhere meanwhile. The executive is being paid to be unavailable, by a house they are leaving, on behalf of a house they have not yet joined. It is common at senior and client-facing altitude for the reason that makes it worth writing about: the person’s value sits partly in relationships and partly in what they know, and both travel.
The two instruments it is mistaken for
The notice period is not the same thing; it is the container. Notice is the time an employee remains employed between resigning and leaving, set by their contract and often longer for senior roles. Gardening leave is one way that span may be used, so it can never outrun the period: the contract’s notice sets the ceiling, and the leave always falls within it.
The non-compete is not the same thing either; it begins where the other two end. It applies after employment has ended, and restricts where a person may go next rather than what they may do while still employed. Whether it is compensated varies by jurisdiction and contract, and whether it is enforceable at all varies more widely still: a question for a qualified adviser where it lands, and never for a recruiter.
| Instrument | When it runs | Status | What it restrains | Whose clause |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notice period | Resignation to leaving date | Employed | Nothing by itself; it bounds the other two | The contract, and in places a statutory minimum |
| Gardening leave | Inside the notice period | Employed and paid | Attendance, access, and where the contract says so, working elsewhere meanwhile | The departing employer, where the clause allows |
| Non-compete | After employment ends | Not employed | Where the person may go next | The departing employer, subject to local law and drafting |
One relationship between the rows decides the true length of the interval and is the one least often checked. Whether time spent on gardening leave counts towards a subsequent non-compete, so that the two run partly together rather than end to end, depends on the jurisdiction and on how the contract was drafted. Read one way they overlap and the horizon is one period; read the other, they stack. Nobody learns which without opening the document.
What it does to the executive’s calendar
For the person in it, the practical content of gardening leave is not leisure but a set of restrictions on speech and timing, held while being paid. Confidentiality continues, so what may be said about the work, and to whom, is governed by the terms that governed it last month. Where the contract bars working elsewhere meanwhile, advisory work and board seats that felt incidental become questions with contractual answers rather than preferences.
And the start date becomes something that can only be offered honestly or guessed at. 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: the concession is asked of a party with no obligation to grant it and frequently no incentive to. An executive who names a date before that conversation has happened has promised something they do not control, in the same window a counteroffer arrives if one is coming.
What it does to the house’s calendar
On the other side, the interval is the reason a signed hire is not a filled seat.
Robert Half puts a typical executive search at 8 to 16 weeks, depending on role complexity, market conditions and stakeholder alignment. Confidential or highly specialised roles can run longer. Every part of that is work a firm and a client can influence: the sharpness of the brief, the speed of decisions, the quality of the slate. Then the signature lands and influence stops, because the date follows the end of the notice period rather than the signature, and that clause belongs to a company which is not in the room and would prefer the leader stayed.
That is where variance concentrates. The controllable part of a hire ends at yes, and the uncontrollable part starts there, measured in months at exactly the altitude where contracts scale notice with seniority and C-suite terms are the longest a business writes. A board told the search is closed hears that the problem is solved. What has happened is that the problem has been handed to a third party’s paperwork.
Where the clock gets read
Which leaves the question worth arguing about: when the interval gets read.
The profession already knows the answer. On any competently run search, each name on a shortlist travels with a written profile including the practical constraints on their availability, from a long notice period to gardening leave or a non-compete clause. Availability is a fact about a candidate, not a discovery made after an offer.
Reading it early is easier for a house that met the executive before the seat existed. The club runs zero public job posts and reaches people who are not actively looking, so a conversation begins with no vacancy attached, and the relationship is career-long: members stay on the radar between moves and are re-introduced when the right mandate appears. The intake behind it asks about ambition, values and the life being built rather than screening a résumé, and that is the difference which matters here: a bound clock is a fact about a contract, no résumé has ever carried one, and only a conversation goes looking. It is also a fact an executive can state safely in one place, because interest is reviewed privately and never shared with anyone, including a current employer, without explicit consent. Asked instead at offer stage, the same question is put to someone who has already decided and every reason to sound available.
The consequence is a filter rather than a formality. A seat that must be filled now and a leader bound for a season are not a match, however well the two would suit each other, and a house with a direct line to founders, owners and the C-suite can say so before a process starts rather than after one closes. Every approach is confirmed with the principal first, so when someone could begin is answered against a real seat. Where the interval is negotiable, the concierge carrying scheduling, preparation, negotiation and counsel is the one who asks, rather than the executive asking on their own behalf while still employed by the party being asked.
A yes is not a start date
The distinction is small and saves a great deal. An offer is a decision. A notice period is a container. Gardening leave is a paid interval inside it, in which an executive is employed, restrained and absent. A non-compete begins only once all of that has ended. Collapse them and a hire looks late when it is merely contractual. Hold them apart and both calendars become legible on the day the offer is made rather than a month after, which is the only point at which the information is still worth anything. What a move charges to the person making it is ledgered in the leaving ledger; what to do with leverage once a genuine seat is on the table, in negotiating from optionality.
For an executive who would rather have that clock read at the start of a relationship than at the end of a search: admission is earned, never bought, and the door is a request for invitation, read in private.
How we know this
Every figure above is tied to a primary record. The build fails if one is not.
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gardening leave is notice served away from work: the departing employee stays employed and paid, protecting confidential information and relationships
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gardening leave is common for senior and client-facing roles; the employee remains employed and bound by their contract but does not come in, which can delay when a new employer is able to onboard them
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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gardening leave lasts no longer than the notice period, because it is a way of serving notice rather than a separate entitlement: the contract's notice sets the ceiling, and gardening leave always falls within a notice period
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whether the employer can impose the leave, and for how much of the notice, turns on the clause and on local law; where no express clause provides for it, imposing it can itself be a breach in some jurisdictions
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a notice period is the time an employee remains employed between resigning and leaving, set by their contract and often longer for senior roles
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whether a notice period exists at all, and how long it runs, depends on the contract and the jurisdiction; some jurisdictions also impose a statutory minimum, in at-will markets there may be no fixed period, and where a contract scales notice with seniority, C-suite terms are the longest a business writes
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a counteroffer, where one is made, arrives in the notice window
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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, while a non-compete restricts where they may go next
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the enforceability of any particular non-compete turns on local law and on the wording of the individual contract, and is a question for a qualified adviser in that jurisdiction
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each name on a shortlist travels with a written profile: career history, what would make the person consider a move, compensation expectations, and the practical constraints on their availability, from a long notice period to gardening leave or a non-compete clause
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Robert Half: the executive search process typically takes 8 to 16 weeks, depending on role complexity, market conditions and stakeholder alignment
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confidential or highly specialised roles can run longer
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the relationship is career-long: members are members for life, on the radar between moves and re-introduced when the right mandate appears; trajectory over transaction
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the whole-person intake is a conversation about ambition, values and the life being built, never a résumé screen
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the Talent Concierge is dedicated to the member for the length of every role process: scheduling, preparation, negotiation and counsel, complimentary
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every approach is confirmed with the principal first, so nobody's time is wasted on either side
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interest is reviewed privately and never shared with anyone, including a current employer, without explicit consent
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zero public job posts, ever: the 0.1% are not actively looking, so the club reaches them
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a direct line to the founders, owners and C-suite of partner houses
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admission is earned, never bought
Frequently asked
No. The notice period is the span between resignation and the leaving date. Gardening leave is one way that span may be used: the employee stays away from work while remaining employed and paid. It always falls within a notice period and can never outrun it, because the contract's notice sets the ceiling. Whether an employer may impose it at all turns on the clause and on local law.
Yes, because the employment relationship has not ended. Salary and contractual benefits continue until the notice period closes, and the obligations of the contract continue with them: 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.
They occupy different periods and restrain different things. Gardening leave runs while the person is still employed and still being paid, and restricts activity by keeping them away from the work. A non-compete applies after employment has ended and restricts where they may go next; whether it is compensated, and whether it is enforceable at all, varies widely by jurisdiction and by drafting.
Sometimes, but not unilaterally. 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. It is a request made to a party with no obligation to grant it, which is why a start date offered before that conversation has happened is a guess rather than a commitment.
Because the date follows the end of the notice period rather than the signature. A search can be run impeccably from brief to signed offer and still leave a seat empty for a season, since the clause that governs the interval belongs to the departing employer. This is the ordinary reason a senior hire and a filled seat are separated by months.
Continue reading
The Leaving Ledger
A move is charged to the person moving, on five lines that appear in neither column of an offer comparison. The ledger, and who is meant to count it.
Negotiating From Optionality
A counteroffer is not a duel. It is a reading of your position. What changes when an executive stops job-hunting and starts choosing, with counsel at the table.