How would you approach asking your employer to make your role officially fully remote after 9 years?

I’m looking for advice from people who’ve successfully negotiated a fully remote arrangement with their employer.

I work for one of the largest multinational consulting firms in Europe and have been with the company for almost 10 years.

Before COVID, I was in the office every day. Since then, I’ve been working from home about 90% of the time. The interesting part is that this isn’t because my role is officially remote—it’s simply how my team operates.

I’m a business development strategist focused on helping the company win contracts, so I work in the bid/contract management space. I don’t have any external clients; all of my stakeholders are internal. My manager is based in another European country, I work independently on my own projects, and the people I collaborate with are often spread across different countries or working at client sites. Pretty much every meeting I have is on Teams.

Because of that, from a practical point of view, it makes no difference whether I’m working from my current country or somewhere else. In the past five years, I’ve barely been to the office because everything has naturally moved to video calls anyway. I don’t have face-to-face client meetings or any real need to be physically present most of the time.

This year, for example, I’ve only had to be in the office for one week. The problem is that I can never predict when that might happen, as it depends on the project.

I’ve grown used to working remotely and honestly have no desire to go back to office life. If I were required to be in the office regularly again, I’d probably leave and find a fully remote role instead.

The bigger issue is that I no longer enjoy living in the country I’m in. I’ve been here for 12 years, and I’d like the freedom to spend extended periods in other countries, especially since my girlfriend lives abroad.

Technically, I could continue doing what I’ve been doing and just fly back if I ever needed to be in the office. But I’d much rather have an official agreement—whether that’s a fully remote contract, a different employment arrangement, or at least a clear understanding with my manager.

My concern is my boss. He’s quite old-school and was very resistant to remote work when COVID started. Years ago, even getting approval to work remotely for a week was difficult. Over time, things naturally became more relaxed, and nowadays he rarely mentions it. A couple of years ago he suggested I should start coming into the office a few times a week, and I simply told him I’m less productive there and prefer working from home. That was the end of the conversation.

The reality is that I think the biggest obstacle isn’t the nature of my job—it’s the mindset of some of the more traditional managers.

I’m now 36, have built a strong reputation over almost 10 years with the company, and feel it’s time to have this conversation properly instead of just hoping things stay as they are.

How would you approach this discussion? Would you frame it as a request, a proposal backed by results, or more of a negotiation? Has anyone here managed to turn an unofficially remote role into an officially remote one?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences.