We are sort of in this position at the moment. We have had a team member out on maternity leave for the past 3 years. We've had staffing cuts since this time so everyone has had to become multi skilled.

This team member is coming back and admits that she has forgotten everything. We are having to lay off one of the contractors to bring her back in where she will have to be retrained completely from scratch which normally takes around about 3 months before they aren't a hindrance rather than a net positive producer.

So we are losing a good worker who has worked with us for 3 years who we have spent a lot of money training and now are having to through that away and send money retraining someone we have already trained. She has also said that when she comes back she won't be able to do overtime or additional shifts so we lose that as well.

Having a life outside of work will affect your career. It's one of those things in life that sucks but you have to make the choice of what work/life balance is right for you. The guy that puts in the extra shifts that goes the extra mile normally gets the promotions or opportunities that someone who can't or won't.