AIBU or is my boss

[strandedexpat]

Not sure if I am being overly emotional about this and therefore not thinking straight but I am just wondering if I am expecting to much or if my boss is being unnecessarily cruel.
I am an expat/immigrant whatever you want to call it and I haven't been home or seen any family members in over 2 years due to covid. I am in a red list country although I am fully vaccinated.
My dad has kindly offered to pay the costs of hotel quarantine so I can come home for Christmas. I had asked my boss if I can work from the hotel for 2 weeks and then take 2 weeks leave he has refused to allow this. However for the past 18 months I have worked 99% from home, I go to the office or to an in person client meeting maybe 1 or 2 days a month at most. December is our quietest month as the culture here is a lot of people travel to their rural family homes for a large part of the month. The time difference is minimal and I have said I am more than happy to be up and online 6am uk time which is regular 9am start time here. His reasoning is that something may occur which requires me to come into the office last minute this does sometimes happen but as I say its usually 1 or 2 days a month at most and there is nothing I would need to do that someone else couldn't do on my behalf or couldn't be 99% resolved remotely. I have taken absolutely minimal leave over the last 2 years, my WFH performance has always been praised and my boss is admittedly usually a reasonable man.
AIBU in expecting my boss to allow this?

Good luck, OP

Yes I think he or she is being a bit mean. I actually know a few colleagues that have gone home and worked from abroad and taken some holiday so stayed for a month.

One was in a totally different time zone, think it was Sri Lanka. He also had to quarantine at a hotel on return and they let him as he was wfh anyway.

Don't see what the big deal is if ur wfh anyway. Ask him what the reasons are. I'd be tempted to go to HR if he refuses. It shouldn't matter whether ur working in ur house or the hotel. How wld he even know!

The other point which may be worth making is that if he says no, then you will just take the full four weeks as leave, and will not be available for anything at all. Depending on what your work is, it might actually be a quite a nuisance to have you completely out of contact for that long, and he might do better to agree to your proposal.

That's a really good point @lanthanum , he's probably thinking you will cancel if he doesn't approve it.

Most of the countries have now been taken off the UK Red List with only Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic remaining on it. So hopefully your problems may have resolved themselves.

@rookiemere you are correct we are no longer on the redlist which is great but sadly not on the list of places whos vaccine certificates are recognized so I will still have to isolate for 10 days at home. Going to take the advice of this thread and approach him again on monday, @lanthanum I don't want to threaten that as I really can't afford a full month unpaid also if they don't want me gone for the whole month he can just turn down the leave request.
I am hoping that he might be more open to me working while isolating at home as I can guarantee the internet, power, environment is good etc. Will also go equipped with a list of solutions to all the potential problems and see what happens. If not fingers crossed my vaccine will soon be recognized and I can head home for 2 weeks leave with no issue