Over the years, we have used light and not used light. We have also had the light on in the morning and evening. The chickens have all done well, no matter what we do. It effects molting and egg laying, but as far as the chickens, they have done fine. So, whatever works for you will work for the chickens.
We have a coop web cam now, so I can see what the chickens do in the evening, when the light is on, but the door is closed. They wander around the coop and can eat later into the evening, which I think is good on the really cold nights. It's dimmer indoors than it is during the day and they can see that it's dark outside. It's like a cozy evening in your living room, where the lights aren't really bright and you know it's night out. They normally settle down and go to roost before the light goes off.
I like having the light timer set so that the lights are on when it's most convenient to do your chicken chores. Back when the days were short and we didn't use lights, it was very disturbing to the chickens to have us come in after dark. Even talking to them before we opened the door and being as quiet as possible, some would always hop off the roost.
If you work away from home and work normal office hours around here, you're driving home in the dark on the shortest days. So, when you go into the coop after you get home, it's dark. You need to collect eggs, at the very least. I would also check food and water. Plus, if you want to give scratch before bed, they are already roosting. Anyway, that's just something else to consider.
