I agree. My contract says that my employer can choose to enforce a non-compete for 12 months after I leave, but if they do, they have to pay me during that time. It creates a strong incentive for them to not abuse the non-compete.
My employment lawyer friend is fairly certain that if a FAANG tried to enforce a noncompete without a garden leave clause, they could be sued for triple damages, where the damages would certainly include the minimum required garden leave, and that if the enforcement attempt resulted in a job opportunity being aborted you could probably also include the full vesting schedule of your next employment contract in the damages (which, again, gets tripled).
[1] M.G.L Chapter 149 Section 24L:
(b) To be valid and enforceable, a noncompetition agreement must meet the minimum requirements of paragraphs (i) through (viii)...
(vii) The noncompetition agreement shall be supported by a garden leave clause or other mutually-agreed upon consideration between the employer and the employee, provided that such consideration is specified in the noncompetition agreement. To constitute a garden leave clause within the meaning of this section, the agreement must (i) provide for the payment, consistent with the requirements for the payment of wages under section 148 of chapter 149 of the general laws, on a pro-rata basis during the entirety of the restricted period, of at least 50 percent of the employee's highest annualized base salary paid by the employer within the 2 years preceding the employee's termination; and (ii) except in the event of a breach by the employee, not permit an employer to unilaterally discontinue or otherwise fail or refuse to make the payments; provided, however, if the restricted period has been increased beyond 12 months as a result of the employee's breach of a fiduciary duty to the employer or the employee has unlawfully taken, physically or electronically, property belonging to the employer, the employer shall not be required to provide payments to the employee during the extension of the restricted period.
The question is what is the rate of voluntary compliance in what would otherwise be an illegal contract.
I think it’s boilerplate in big company contracts there, but extremely rarely enforced, because IIRC the amount you have to pay is the comp for the job you’re blocking.
When I had a contract like that, I occasionally fantasized about getting a FAANG job and being paid in full to not take it, but in reality that would never happen unless you got caught in a spat between rival executives.
As an engineer, I have seen a lot of contracts with bogus non-compete clauses and never seen one that would hold in court. So the employees are technically protected but still subject to psychological warfare (threats when you plan to ignore an illegal clause).