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Reader question: Please further explain “garden leave” in this: Any employee who is not required to work but is sent home and is still receiving normal salary is on garden leave. My comments: Actually, I’ve just come across a perfect explanation on “garden leave”, albeit implicitly (without mentioning those exact two words). I was browsing guardian.co.uk the other day when I ran into a story on Mark Papermaster, the chief engineering executive of iPhone 4, leaving Apple due to what is now known as “Antennagate”, or iPhone 4’s signal problems. Alright, no mincing words here. Papermaster was probably fired. And this is less than two years after he joined Apple from IBM, a company he’d previously served for a quarter of century against the wishes of the rival firm. In fact IBM brought the case to court in order to stop Papermaster from joining a major competitor. Anyway, recalling that unhappy episode, the Guardian article (Apple iPhone executive in shock exit, August 8, 2010) says this, from which I inadvertently got the perfect “further explanation” of “garden leave”: Papermaster had only worked for Apple for just under 16 months. He had previously been employed for 25 years at IBM, where he was a leading expert on its Power chips. IBM launched a legal challenge when Apple appointed Papermaster in October 2008, claiming that he would divulge trade secrets. The two sides eventually agreed that Papermaster would wait six months before joining Apple, and promise not to reveal confidential IBM information to his new employer. | 
