Getting out of a company's golden handcuffs is going to take more than magic....

For 14 years, Darcy Holtzman had been going to her job as the chief financial officer at the largest independent office products dealership in all of North Carolina: Burgess Industries. One morning, she arrives at work to discover the owner and CEO is retiring, an announcement she anticipated more than the one that came after it: she would be taking on the title of vice president, and her hothead, controlling colleague, Ron Marchetti, would be the new president. Darcy knew right then that his appointment would change the course of the company potentially irreparably, and that it would take even more time and effort on her and the other managers’ part to keep the company operating.

Though the story of Darcy and Burgess Industries in The Big Turnaround is one of fiction, author Ellen McIlhenny draws from her real-life experiences as a chief financial officer and business advisor to give life to the everyday workplace issues that plague most of us at some point in our careers. How the characters in this novel work together (or don’t) will provide you with staff member insight on how similar points of contention in our own workplaces can be avoided and negotiated through.