[ghaff]

And you highlight how allowing non-competes with garden leave is a mixed bag. If someone's fine with taking a year or two off while getting some fraction of the total compensation they were getting previously, I suppose it can look like a good deal. But that would be pretty unsatisfactory for a lot of people mid-career with kids in college.

[leoc]

IIUC we're generally talking about full base salary in the case of financial-industry "garden leave", though obviously missing out on the possibility of bonus payments could really sting for many in that business. And obviously being "out of the game" for a significant amount of time can hurt, especially if you're in an area where things are changing quickly.

[lrem]

From the offers I was getting back in the day, finance runs on low base salary and huge bonuses. Bonuses of 200% of the base salary are not unheard of. Full base salary can still mean quite a bit of pain.