I’ve been put on gardening leave from my current job after handing in my notice. Other than posting on Reddit to make everyone jealous, what would you do?

44 comments

  3. Travel.

    The luxury of 4 weeks off in a stretch to be away would be irresistible. If I had the money. If probably go long-haul to somewhere in ESEA.

    If no budget for travel, not sure off the top of my head.

  10. Firstly. Don’t watch daytime TV. It’s crap. Have a look on an app called Love Holidays and pick yourself up a cheap holiday and just chill out for a few weeks

  11. One week each of crying, sunny beach holiday, hiking holiday and redecorating

    Getting to stay sleeping until ~9

  12. I had 2 1/2 during covid, so I’d do the same.

    Catch up on games I need to play.

    Catch up on books I want to read.

    Although without a national lockdown, I’d probably get out and about a bunch as well.

  14. Travel to somewhere that you wouldn’t normally have the time to travel to like the Shetland Islands or Svalbard.

  16. What is gardening leave? I want some…

    Also I’d maybe consider finishing decorating my house, play xbox, watch TV.

  17. Technically its called “Garden Leave”.

    I made sure I was fully preped for the next job. And then the wife had me dooing chores around the house.

  19. Sleep, finish jobs around the house, a week or 2s holiday if funds allow, have some fun.

    Use the time to set yourself up physically and mentally

  20. Relax, perhaps go on a long weekend away to Barcelona or something. Declutter the house in preparation for the fresh start of a new job!

  21. Take training courses for the next job, boring I know, but you will be ready when they interview you for a new job.

  22. I’d like to say be productive at home, get the stuff in my house/garden I’ve been meaning to do (eg redecorating the spare room). However in reality I suspect I’d spend a month watching Netflix and playing PlayStation, then regretting wasting the time.

  24. I’d love a month off.

    Wouldn’t do anything in particular. I just hate working and would find ways to entertain myself. Games, long walks, drawing, reading. All the things I like to do where work gets in the way.

  25. I was on 3 months gardening leave about 15 years ago so I signed up for a 3 month Thai language course and it was awesome

  26. You’re living the dream!

    I would personally travel, not always you get the gift of time. Country hopping through Asia, Europe or South America?

    Or, if I had commitments or couldn’t travel for whatever reason, I would really invest into myself. Long walks, cooking, reading, fitness classes. You’ll be refreshed and energised for your new role!

  28. I’ve had this before as well. And got another job. Boring, but the ‘free’ month’s wages paid some stuff off.

  29. I work in IT, this happened to me. I used the time to get back into a workout and running routine. With 4 weeks to get through to pain of starting again almost from scratch, I got fitter and stronger, so when I went back to work, I had a decent schedule and was comfortable with it.

  30. Have a family, little one has school. I’d spend my days doing loads of sim racing and uploading videos of it to YouTube.

  31. Learn anew skill. How to make a video and post it to a website? Make the partner a dinner cooked by you (if you do not normally cook things) . Thoroughly clean the house. All those jobs you have put off.

  35. Decorate my whole house… What would normally take me a couple of hours takes me at least a day when I’m trying to look after my kids at the same time.. so there’s a lot that needs to be done

  36. I would learn to use the music production software and hardware I bought about 10 years ago that’s been sat almost unused since. Every time I get it set up, I spend an hour or two figuring out how to do the basics, then I spend half an hour messing about with it, then it’s time to go to bed because I have work the next day. Weekends are spent recovering from the week’s work and getting ready for the next. I have an hour or two free time every evening but without getting to the stage where I can just open up the software and get on with it, every time I do so I spend more time figuring out how to use it than I do actually using it… a solid month with nothing else to do? I’d be on it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and by then end of that i’d be able to open it and just _do stuff_ instead of _figuring out how to do stuff_

  37. My gardening leave had conditions that I had to be able to attend the office if/when they called me (they never called me but it was a way to stop me going abroad on hols). It started so well, I went Centre Parcs with the Mrs and kids for 4 days and then when we returned, my Mrs gave me a list of jobs around the house – I had absolutely no excuses to not do them

  39. Assuming funds are in my bank account at the start of the leave.

    I’d look for local events for the coming month. I’d plan a couple of hikes. Go on a date or two. Cook all my meals from scratch…except on the days I’ve been on a hike. On the other days, I’d do yoga, draw and paint. And definitely take myself out for a nice meal somewhere

  41. I would go to Krakow for a few days again, then to Amsterdam for a week.

    I would deep clean the house, make some money selling things on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, etc.

    Life admin.

    Seeing friends and family as much as possible.

    Watch all the films and series I have put on a ‘to watch’ list and abandoned.

    Read at least 5 books.

    Savour this opportunity – it may not ever happen again.

  42. Go do some UK touristy stuff. Doing well known activities weekdays is so much more pleasant as there’s far fewer people.

  43. Do you already have another job to go to?

    If not I’d be spending all of my time looking for one.

  44. I had two months at the start of this year.

    – went on holiday
    – exercised a lot
    – decorated the kids bedrooms and my new home office
    – sorted out endless piles of life admin that had stacked up
    – went out with old colleagues and got very pissed
    – got COVID
    – gave my wife COVID
    – nearly missed starting my new role

    I also had six months off earlier in my career. Both this and last time I finished gardening leave feeling like I could have made more of the time off, but in actual fact I did a fair bit, looking back.

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