Work-Life Balance in Action

MSNBC profiles CPA Allen Sheffield, who stepped off the partnership track of Coopers & Lybrand so he could spend more time working with a local youth ministry. He went to work in Kmart's auditing department - he loves accounting, but the long hours at Coopers didn't allow much time for ministry work. Then he worked full-time in the ministry until his former colleagues called:

In the summer of 2005, partner Mark Matthews asked if Sheffield wanted to meet for lunch to discuss the possibility of him coming back to the firm.

“I laughed at him,” he recounted, because he had already tried and failed to get the kind of flexible schedule he needed. “Mark told me things had changed.”

Sheffield decided to check it out, calling former co-workers and managers at the company to make sure they had indeed changed their ways when it came to work and family initiatives, and after discussing it with his wife, Paula, came up with a schedule that would fit his many obligations and proposed it to the managers at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Be sure to read the comments that go along with article (they're here). Folks have posted good and helpful thoughts.

Chase your dream job, but keep your day job [MSNBC]