I work in a team of 8 persons. I'm happy with my job and I'm not looking for a new position at the moment. However, my manager thinks that I will resign in the near future and this is becoming a big problem.
The background:
Two weeks ago, my manager asked me for a personal talk (which is quite unusual). He asked me if I had any problems lately and if there is anything that I do not like about the company at the moment. He was quite insistent but when I asked about that he became evasive. As far as I know, I was the only person who had such a talk.
Similar talks continued over the following days, and my manager suddenly became very interested in what I'm doing, asking me if I wanted other projects, other team members... He then instructed me to instruct some of my colleagues so they could replace me "if you should be ill or something". When I told him that everything is fine, he behaved as if he didn't believe me and went away sighing. Last week, a coworker told me confidentially that my manager thinks I will leave the company soon and that he (manager) is asking my colleagues if they have information about that.
I have no idea why my manager would think I'll leave. Given his behavior (and my very good performance reviews) I don't think that he will get rid of me in any way.
The whole thing is becoming a problem for me because
- A big project is coming up and it was planned that I be the project lead. If my manager thinks I'm leaving, he will select someone else.
- My company in general and my manager as well have pretty strong feelings about people who leave. You get the most boring jobs available. Any benefit that is not in your contract is revoked (e.g. access to company parking space). Getting payed days off becomes almost impossible. In general, people on notice are treated badly. (I work in Germany, my notice period would be four weeks and the employer cannot just fire you after you resign.) Even if I did not resign I'm afraid that this will happen to me.
My question:
How can I approach my manager, given that I officially do not know that he thinks I'm quitting?
Is there anything I can do to show him that I'm happy at my current position?