Core employee resigns at the job he has had for 13 years, and his boss doesn't seem to care, even though when everyone else left he made a whole deal about it: 'I put in my notice, and to my surprise my boss [...] seems more cheerful than usual.'

Sometimes the problem is you… Let's deal with it.

We are so used to seeing people talking badly or poorly about themselves that when someone is overly confident, we strike it as weird. Having confidence is not a bad thing at all, is necessary. If you don't believe in yourself, who will? But being overly confident can seem more like egocentrism instead of self-assurance. And, unfortunately, I think that is the case in this Reddit story.

We have an employee who calls himself a 'core employee' because he has been working at this small business for 13 years, but that is not something he gets called by other people. Is something he self-denominated himself with. That is not a good sign. Also, we hear that a lot of people have entered this business and left, and that always causes problems with the manager, who really tries to maintain employees. But when this user gave his two weeks' notice, he just accepted it. To have a core employee who worked for a business for 13 years leave is not something any manager wants, unless… And here is where my theories start.

One possibility could be that the other employees resigned due to conflicts in the workspace or with other coworkers, and this employee was one of the reasons. A more positive option could be that he has already worked there so long that they can't ask him to stay any longer. Another option could be that due to his longevity in the job, his pay had gone too high and it was becoming difficult for the business to continue paying him that much. And the prospect theory, I think, is the most likely. He wasn't a core employee. He spent 13 years in the business, but he didn't do a great job. He was just there, providing no real value to the company, but he wasn't that bad to actually fire him. But now that he's leaving, they can hire somebody who is more prepared for the job and who can actually make a difference in a decade of work.

Whatever the reason is, I'm sorry for this employee. But it's a good thing that he's leaving and looking to work somewhere he could be more valued. Let's hope that his coworkers react differently from the manager and actually react sadly to him leaving. Anyway, his path continues somewhere else, and that is the important thing.