[Icemaster]

I'm no lawyer, I can only tell you what I've done.

What kind of employee has she been up to the point where she went out? Ohio's an at-will state. You can fire her for anything at any time, but if you show cause and an escalation then unemployment goes out the window. The only rub in there would be the 'ilness'. Dont know eactly what her right would be under that, but it sound like she's playing you to fire her so she can come back and play the disability card.

Showing evidence of poor production is enough to go to her and state factually that she appears unable to perform her duties, so - option A - goes on LTD (unpaid) until she gets her act together, or she hits a pre-determiend period of time; or B - seeks employment elsewhere on her own.

Clarifying her duties and responsibilities makes it pretty black and white. Burden of proof would be on here to prove that she's unable to do so, and why she's a protected class. If she can't, then option a/b again.

There's also nothing wrong with putting a mandate in place to her that she must communicate with you, and failure to do so is a fireable offense (did that, it worked...).

$hitheads like this are what forces you to put multiple, detailed, ridiculous HR policies in place.