Bad managers actually think they're being generous with allowing staff to move their day forward or backward by a half-hour to avoid the worst of the traffic. This demonstrates such a staggering lack of perspective that it could be a Dunning-Kruger case study.

Good managers, meanwhile, start from the premise that as long as the employee is making a reasonable effort, getting the job done, and not putting any other aspect of the business at unnecessary risk of harm, working arrangements can be whatever everyone is comfortable with.

Basically, bad managers default to saying "no" on work-life balance issues, while good managers default to saying "yes" and will say "no" only when they have a clear business reason for refusing.