Can a person still be considered totally disabled, even if they return to work for a short time during recovery?

Yes. The case law is clear that a person can still be considered totally disabled even if they return to work for a short time during recovery, or after benefits have been terminated by the insurer: Ferguson v. UNUM Life Insurance Co. of America, [1998] B.C.J. No. 531 (B.C. S.C.); Nicholas v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. of Canada, 2003 BCSC 506 (B.C. S.C.); Hood v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., [1993] S.J. No. 227 (Sask. C.A.). The idea in these cases is that plaintiffs should not be prejudiced or disadvantaged from receiving benefits by attempting to work again. See also Tanious v. Empire Life. Judge Brown notes that the plaintiff’s tasks and abilities cannot be considered sensibly in a piece-meal fashion. As stated earlier, what matters is that the insured is unable to perform substantially all of the duties of that position.  In this case, the plaintiff had been told by her family physician earlier that she should not be working; but in what was an exercise in obvious poor judgment, ignored the advice and continued to work, fearful of losing her position. Just because the plaintiff was able to perform some of her duties, does not mean she was able to perform substantially all her duties on a continued and satisfactory level. In other words, going through the motions of some tasks when the plaintiff clearly should have ceased work on advice of her physician should not be to her prejudice.