Standard work hours - do they still exist?

We blogged recently on the subject of work location and how the nature of work is changing - insofar as many people are no longer going to work each day in an office.

Now that technology changes have allowed "work" to take place at cafes, in cars and at home, we find that the definition of work time has also changed.

You may find that you or your co-workers work any of the following schedules

• nine to five - you are still required onsite in a certain location at certain hours
• job-share - a person is still required on-site at certain hours but you share that with someone else
• flexitime - the work can done at times that suit you, rather than fitting to the organisations schedule
• freelance - you decide what work needs to be done and when it needs to be done.

As long ago as 2005 - it was estimated that one third of workers participated in some way in the freelance economy.  And that figure is going up.

In the same way that our independence from location is fuelled by the rise of mobile devices and cloud based services, so is our independence from notion of office hours.  

There are different viewpoints on whether this change is for the better with some saying the productivity goes up when people choose their own work hours and some saying that stress levels increase without the structure of nine-to-five.

What is your opinion on changes in work hours - are they for the better?