Your burger, their beef

Dear Corporate Governess

Why is it that any time I eat a Big Mac at my desk, the office nutrionistas look at me like I just clubbed a baby seal? Can't a healthy girl enjoy a little McD's now and then without getting the stink-eye?

Roberta G., Vancouver

Dear Roberta

They'll never admit it, but they secretly want your fries (360 calories, 17 fat grams, 270 mg sodium). Sure, they'll complain about the smell of your greasy, fatty, salty Big Mac (540 calories, 29 fat grams, 1,020 mg sodium)-as if their Indonesian curried tempeh doesn't generate its own equally odorous fog-but I suspect their moral superiority is masking something else.

My concern is that their revulsion and your anger may combine like some undigested bit of pastry (McD's Baked Apple Pie: 270 calories, 16 fat grams, 200 mg sodium) to create acid reflux in your working relationships down the road.

One solution is simple: To enjoy your McDonald's judgment-free, head to the park, or anywhere else outside the office. Barring that, you could try lightening the mood with a little humour-some yellow caution tape around your desk should do the trick. If that's too downmarket for them, tell them Julia Child was a fan, at least until McDonald's switched from cooking fries in beef tallow to vegetable oil. She, too, blamed the nutritionistas.

Dear Corporate Governess

I've been filling in for a mat leave the past year (and doing a pretty excellent job, I must say). Now, she's coming back and I will most certainly be demoted. It's not fair. What can I do about it?

Eden K., Toronto

Dear Eden

Carpe diem, my dear. Consider this an opportunity to ask what you want in your career and set yourself up for success. Your managers may have had you step up to the role to see how you perform, and that could translate into a promotion down the line, but first you'll have to lose the attitude. You knew this was a mat leave; it's no surprise Mommy is returning. If you come across as an entitled brat now, that just turns everybody off.

Frankly, this was a conversation you should have had before you accepted the mat-leave position. After all, the company could simply have hired an outsider to come in on contract, but in doing so, would have missed that chance to see you rise to the challenge.

So what should you do now? I asked top Toronto business coach Andrew Reid, founder of HR consultancy Big Fish, for his advice. He suggests you build a business case for yourself, enlisting the help of your immediate supervisor. "You can say, 'I'm in a different place now; I feel like I don't fit the pay scale and responsibilities of the old job; my contribution is much greater to the company now,'" Reid says. The question you should be asking is, "How can we work out a plan for me?"

If a position doesn't exist, perhaps you and your manager should invent one, or at least expand your old role to allow you to keep stretching. "A good manager will find a way to make that happen," says Reid. "Since the age of 14, I've never stepped into a job that existed before."

This is a critical juncture, because if this opportunity is missed by both employee and management, resumés start flying, and the company misses out on a potential rising star. Carpe diem goes both ways.