Add Comment Question: I am a small business owner with 3 employees. 1 employee is currently on maternity leave and returning in 3 months. Prior to taking her leave, she started to perform sub-par and started to miss work days and coming late to work. She was notified about this multiple times. The temp worker doing her work now is working out well and fully focused on the tasks. I know that I have a legal obligation to provide the job back to the employee on maternity leave, but I am concerned that the tardiness, absences, and lack of work focus will return due to having her 2nd child. As an employer, what can I do to get ready for this possibility? I am prepared to allow her to return to work, but have a very small window of patience if this behaviour continues. Answer: You're clearly in a very delicate situation. If she's had performance and general work issues since prior to her leave, it's important that you've kept a record of those issues and implemented (and continue to implement) some sort of progressive discipline. If you ultimately wish to end her employment, it's extremely important that you get some legal advice and guidance, as you run the real risk of exposing yourself to possible human rights and wrongful dismissal claims. Before you make any decisions, I would recommend that you contact us to discuss the issue in more detail. Your Comment * Your Email * Your Name * Your City Note, your name, city and email is not displayed on the website. It is used to notify you that we have approved your comment.