Named, not advised
You are still employed. That is not a detail.
If the money is still arriving, in most arrangements you are still an employee, and the contract you signed still applies to you. This page says so plainly, because pretending otherwise would be useless — and then it stops, because the next step is a employment lawyer and not a website.
This page is not legal advice
Nothing on this site is legal advice, and nothing here is a substitute for an employment lawyer. This page does not tell you what your agreement means, whether any clause applies to you, whether it is enforceable, or what you may do. It tells you which questions exist. Employment law varies by country and often by the specific wording you signed.
If you ask the AI guide to read, summarise or assess a clause, it will decline. That is deliberate.
The things that may still bind you
These are the categories men are surprised by, listed so you know they exist. Whether any of them applies to you is exactly what this site cannot tell you.
Continuing duties. Employment usually continues during paid leave, and duties can continue with it, including duties of good faith and loyalty.
Confidentiality. What you knew at work is often still protected, during the leave and after it ends.
Non-compete and non-solicitation. Restrictions on working for competitors, or approaching clients and colleagues, are common at senior level and may begin when the employment ends rather than when you stopped attending.
Garden-leave provisions themselves. Many contracts specifically permit an employer to do this, and set out what you may and may not do while it lasts.
Other work, and your own venture. Whether you can take anything on, paid or unpaid, is a contractual question and not a moral one.
Worth asking a employment lawyer, early
An hour of proper advice at the start of a paid leave period is one of the better purchases available to you, and a great deal cheaper than acting first. Sensible things to put in front of them:
What am I permitted to do during this period, and what changes when it ends? Which restrictions survive the employment, and for how long? What am I permitted to say publicly, and to whom? If a settlement or an agreement has been offered, what am I actually signing? Is there anything in this that needs answering before a date?
Free or low-cost employment advice services exist in many countries, and some household insurance policies include legal cover people forget they have.
Please do not paste your agreement into the chat
Two reasons, both practical. You may still owe your employer confidentiality, and nothing written in a chat window is legally privileged. The AI guide cannot interpret the document anyway, and will tell you so.
Take the document to someone qualified, and use this site for the part it is actually for: what the time is doing to you and what you want to do with the rest of it.