Most companies treat leaves of absence as a pause in employment and as such, it is expected that any equipment would be returned to the employer during that leave. This may not apply to leave of a short to undetermined length, like jury duty, but for extended term leaves in excess of a 1-2 pay periods, it is common to have equipment returned.
With the example you are giving, it would seem like a poor use of an asset to have it sitting in an employee’s driveway, especially if it is insured and maintained, when that asset could be “working” for you with another employee.
This doesn’t really require you to change your leave policy, but you may want to audit your vehicle use policy to stipulate that the vehicle is used for work purposes only and not the free use of the employee, and that it can be recalled by management.
HR Insider staff
