I am from the US and I read that some countries like the UK have something called garden/gardening leave: “the practice whereby an employee leaving a job – having resigned or otherwise had their employment terminated – is instructed to stay away from work during the notice period, while still remaining on the payroll.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_leave)
I don't understand this at all, especially why the employer would want to pay the employee.
I think that in the US, if you resign and give two week's notice, that means nothing in terms of protection as an employee. The employer can just tell you to leave on immediately and not pay you the two weeks.
If you are fired, they just fire you and pay you nothing. And if you are somehow entitled to compensation, they just fire you and pay the compensation to you and that is it. They cannot tell you what to do or not to do after they fire you.
If you have a non-compete agreement and you resign or they fire you, you are not allowed to work for a competitor for a certain amount of time. They don't have to keep you in the payroll after firing you.
I know that there is administrative leave like for example when the employee is under investigation for misconduct, etc., but that does not match the definition of gardening leave given above, since the employee's employment is not yet terminated, it is just leave while the decision is being made.
Can someone explain the logic behind gardening leave? Is it because in the UK there are there labor protections that say an employee must still be paid for x amount of time after being fired?