Hilarious, but definitely Awkward!!
The work cultures between my last and current job are very different. For instance, most people work through lunch at Mathematica. For the most part, they sit at their desk and eat their lunches. Out of about 250 people employees there, only a very few utilize the lunch room on the first floor that seats about 25. At Symbiance, people actually take lunches. Granted, there are only 12 people, but the general trend is to leave for lunch for a nice breather.
So yeah, going from 250 employees on three floors down to 12 employees in a small suite was quite a change for very social me. When I was at Mathematica, it seemed small enough-- i viewed it as working with my high school class...and who doesn't know everyone in their highschool class? I didn't really think what I was doing on the job was going to get me very far with my career aspirations, and my new job certainly offers that. But I really miss working with so many people, saying hi to people in the hallways, etc.
Well, now that I take a whopping one hour lunch, and Symbiance is only a 5 minute drive from Mathematica, I have been there to have lunch with past co-workers a few times now. I never had lunch with them before, but I worked with them then. I don't have my pass card anymore to get into the small lunch room downstairs, so I have to wait (feeling very dumb) for a Mathematica employee to let me in. Of course, they all know I am not there anymore, but they let me in anyway despite this dangerous breach of security. As I sit in the lunchroom and wait for my lunch dates to arrive, those Mathematica employees who pass through the lunch room chat with me, and ask me the usual questions "What are you doing here!? How do you like your new job? Where is it again? What are you doing again??"
The last time I had lunch there, the President of Mathematica walked in. I looked at him like I was a deer caught in headlights. After all, I sent the protocol goodbye email to the company-wide dlist that expressed mixed emotions: it basically said, i am off to finally use my stats degree for once, although i will miss the people here. Hey, I was being honest. But some people thought that was a bit blunt for a goodbye email to well over 300 people.
The President is known for coming in and sitting with random employees in the lunch room. The President of Mathematica is a friendly guy, but slightly eccentric. Here are links to previous posts about the President while I worked there: (new employee lunch with President), (parking next to the President), (President and Opera).
So guess who sat down at my table while I was waiting for my lunch dates to arrive? That's right, the President of Mathematica. This was the beginning of our conversation:
President: "May I join you??"
Me: (gulp, but enthusiastically) "Oh sure! go ahead!"
President: "So how's your projects been?"
Me: "Well, I don't work here anymore."
Great start, huh? I am not sure if he didn't get my "I am off to use my stats degree" goodbye email, or if he was covering his knowledge of my leaving. So i had to tell him what I was now doing, and I was happy to report all my wonderful stat-related functions that they could have offered me there but were denying me for the sake of data collection...grumble. My lunch dates, Larry and Raquel, showed up, and they had the same expression of "gulp, this is going to be great" that I had. Both of them knew the President better than I, so it was a relief having them there, but still very awkward.
At the very end of lunch, the President goes "so shouldn't you have not been let in here?", and I go "I'm friendly, I promise" Larry backs me up and says "she wouldn't hurt a thing" and the President goes "as long as you are not carrying a bomb or anything..." :)