This paper is a study of the daily life of workers regarding their experiences and discourses on work and non-work time. The workplace is the privileged locus of analysis. This paper examines the case of Volkswagen do Brasil in its ABC region assembly plant, in São Paulo state, an emblematic example of initiatives and negotiations driven to achieve flexible and intense work time. The period of analysis is 1995-2005, when most intense changes had taken place. The first part of this paper presents a concise discussion of time and work time as societal constructions in contemporary society and the actual debate in Brazil. The second part briefly discusses the context of Volkswagen do Brasil in order to analyze the workers daily temporal experience inside and outside the work place.
Working day; Work time; Non-work time; Flexibility; Unions