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It sounds like you need to talk to someone in the HR department and see what can be arranged. If she's not capable of working two hours a week, she should probably be on medical leave. It might sound harsh to put it that way, but you could be putting yourself in a bad situation if it comes out someone is presumably being paid while not actually working. Best case scenario, she starts to feel much better and the situation resolves itself. But if it doesn't, it's best to get control of things.
Exactly, this is why we have medical leave
It is probably very difficult to set professional boundaries when someone is going through a serious illness. Have an honest open conversation about how lag in her work is affecting the team/ project. Have the HR present if you need them. If she is committing to 1-2 hours of work, she needs to do it. If not, you need to adjust the hours or discuss her time off as she recovers.
As mercenary as it seems, your responsibility is to your company and yourself. You need to not to kill yourself trying to take on her work. Be sure you are documenting this with HR. You want to be sure that if this does not resolve itself quickly, and likely it won’t, that you are not in a hole without a ladder. Don’t feel guilty, you have a job to do and so does she. As you have already been candid with her you have done her all the necessary kindness. She is taking advantage of the situation.
OP, your post, although I’m sure it was unintended, makes it sound like you’re being nosy, as opposed to trying to help the employee. If the employee has got a chronic illness, which this probably qualifies, they should be looking at FMLA paperwork. That gives them the leave they need and protects their job until the next step needs to happen. But the conversation of trying to find out what is happening with the employee is a very delicate one. If the employee is giving you any timeframe on how long this treatment will last whether it’s short or long-term, you should be guiding them towards FMLA. If something comes up that goes beyond that, you and your HR department will figure that out based on your company’s policies.
One more word of note, if this is a really good employee, somebody you would go to bat for, I have seen leadership tell not ask, tell, the HR department that their employee will not be separated from the company due to the illness. I did not know it was available in the company that I worked for, but I did see it happen late in my leadership career. If you have someone like this then definitely go to bat for them.
We're a business, not a charity. The client doesn't care about who's sick. They paid money to get things done.
You say that until you get sick one day!!
Thanks all for the input! To clarify, I have talked to HR and benefits and she is on FMLA, but only takes leave on treatment weeks and comes back to work between chemo rounds. I have encouraged her to take more time but she doesn’t seem to want to.
OP, then the only other thing that I would do is let her know in a very respectful and professional way that her work is suffering and the impact that it’s having both on her team and on her peers. Simply because she cannot get the work done. It sounds like you’ve done everything that you can at this point, and once you let her know that her Work is suffering see what she does from there. Again, best of luck with the situation. You sound like you’re a good leader for trying to keep her situation in mind.
LMRO