Gardening leave is a transition period for employees who give or are given notice of termination, keeping them on the payroll but away from the workplace. Under the leave, employees are prohibited from working for the competition or themselves. A protectionist measure, the garden leave prevents the employee from sabotaging the work environment and from taking proprietary information to a competitor. The garden leave is primarily used in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but was also introduced in Massachusetts in mid-2018.