Put another way: Just like you're being told by your manager that you must report to the office, your manager is being told by their manager that they have no a

Put another way: Just like you're being told by your manager that you must report to the office, your manager is being told by their manager that they have no authority to override that. If your manager lets you work from home without permission, they're endangering their own job, just like you'd be endangering your own job if you continue to work from home without permission. You need your manager to decide it's a good idea to go to their manager and ask for an exception, and so forth, until you find someone with the power to grant exceptions (or set policy). That generally requires one of two things: Either you are an extraordinarily valuable employee, such that your manager feels compelled to bring this up with their manager and feels like they have a chance of success at that argument (either because senior management knows your value, or senior management trusts your direct manager), or a whole lot of ordinarily valuable employees all ask the same thing.