>Yes. This sort of thing is used all of the time to get rid of executives… you park the guy in gardening leave, gagged for 6-24 months. When the person gets replaced permanently, nobody remembers the old guy. The only option is to quit, but that has consequences.

Reminds of the Korean show 'Good Manager' where the company is trying to get the employee to quit rather than be fired, and keep making the work environment worse and worse in a comedic fashion, and he keeps finding ways to somehow get work down.