Applies to:	Original Policy Date:	Date of Last Review:	Approved by:
Full-time & Part-time Faculty and Staff	January 3, 2017	June 2022	Dr. Marco Carvalho Executive Vice President and Provost

Policy Owner: Office of Human Resources

Policy Purpose

The university supports the principle of flexible work arrangements for its employees to provide for more efficient utilization of employee abilities, better service to the university community, and improved working conditions. Flexible work arrangements may allow employees to select, within limits of their department’s requirements and responsibilities, their own hours of work. Flexible work arrangements may assist with individual needs, such as commuting and family needs, and can also contribute to employee job satisfaction and reduce tardiness, absences for personal business, turnover, and overtime costs.

Policy Scope

This policy applies to full-time and part-time faculty and staff.

Policy Statement

Florida Tech makes reasonable efforts to accommodate requests for flexible work arrangements. However, the university reserves the right to limit flexible work arrangements based upon the operational needs of the university. All university departments must be open and staffed for delivery of services based upon the established working hours of each department and university hours. Departments are encouraged to accommodate the reasonable requests of employees for flexible work arrangements when consistent with the department’s objectives.

Flexible work arrangements may include flextime, job sharing, telecommuting, or temporarily compressed workweeks and require advance approval by the appropriate Vice President, Dean, or Senior Vice President.

Flexible work arrangements are entirely voluntary. The university reserves the right to rescind a previously approved flexible work arrangement.

Procedures/Guidelines

An employee may submit a request for a flexible work arrangement in writing to their supervisor. The Vice President, Dean, or Senior Vice President will approve or deny the request for a flexible work arrangement within 10 working days of receiving the request, or as soon as administratively practicable.

Direct Supervisors may rescind flexible work agreements with the approval of the appropriate Vice President, Dean, or Senior Vice President. HR should be consulted as appropriate. The employee should be notified in writing of the change and is typically given a minimum of 10 working days’ notice of the change.

Flexible work arrangements remain subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act and federal laws dealing with overtime compensation, which requires payment of time-and-one-half for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in the university’s established workweek (12:01 a.m., Sunday through midnight, Saturday). “Averaging” 40 hours of work over the two weeks in the university’s pay period is not permitted.

Definitions

Flextime: A schedule that permits variations in daily start and/or end times for an employee but does not alter the employee’s total work hours for a given week. Flextime should not be altered on a daily basis. For example, an employee that has been given approval by their supervisor to start their day at 7:30 a.m. cannot change their flextime the next day to arrive at 8 a.m. and state they were not late. Flextime is designed to be a consistent schedule change such as every Monday arriving at 7:30 a.m., or for a two-week period the employee will work 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., etc.

Job sharing: A schedule that permits two employees to divide the responsibilities of one full time job. Both employees in a job-sharing arrangement will be considered part time and therefore ineligible for the benefit package available to full-time employees.

Telecommuting: An arrangement that permits an employee to work part of a day or week from home. See the Telecommuting Policy for details.

Compressed workweeks: A schedule that allows a four day/10-hour workweek or a 9/80 schedule in which an employee works nine-hour days in each two-week period and has a day off every other week. A compressed workweek should be reserved for unusual, temporary circumstances, as the University’s regular days of operation are Monday through Friday.

Responsibilities

Employees are responsible to submit requests for flexible work schedules in writing to their supervisor.

Supervisors in coordination with the applicable Vice President, Dean or Senior Vice President will approve, deny, or rescind flexible work arrangements. Supervisors are responsible for communicating any decision regarding flexible work arrangements with the employee.

Enforcement

Employees who do not follow this policy may have their request for flexible work arrangement denied.

Supervisors and other management who do not adhere to this policy may be subject to disciplinary action.