An assessment of the flexible working hours at the University of Brasilia

Abstract

The flexibility of working hours can lead to institutional and individual benefits. However, the effectiveness of the implementation of this policy needs planning and knowledge of the institution. Thus, the objective of this paper was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the flexibility policy with reduced working hours at the University of Brasília (UnB). To this end, UnB employees answered a questionnaire and indicated their level of agreement for six variables related to the advantages and five related to the disadvantages of this policy. Data analysis included chart Box Plot and the Mann-Whitney nonparametric test. The main advantages were related to an increase in the free time of the servers during business hours, reduction of the work interruptions, and better service in the daytime and nighttime at the university. Among the disadvantages analyzed, the need of hiring servers for proper implementation of the policy stood out. In general, UnB servers agreed to all analyzed advantages and minimized the problems arising from possible disadvantages.