I have to admit it’s very weird being back at Pfizer. It’s all so very familiar and yet so much has changed. There are some old friends and colleagues still around (or just returning) but, for the most part, the people I did most of my work with and for are no longer there. I walk around the Groton and New London offices and keep expecting to see people I know and only seeing strangers. I’ve only been gone a year and change and yet it’s all very different.
The work, however, has not changed. Granted, when I was there last I was working more on the portfolio/PMO side and now I am back to being a Project Manager but the processes have not changed significantly. I slipped right into the work like a comfortable shoe and am plugging away on what needs to be done. Yet, when I walk around I feel like a stranger in an incredibly familiar land. Imagine if they took everyone where you worked and replaced them with strangers and then think how weird it would be to walk around the office. That’s what it feels like. I guess when you’ve been somewhere for so long in the past, the feeling of being new is terribly at odds with the familiarity of the place and the work itself. It feels like one of those TV shows that changes more than half the cast between seasons when you thought it was over in the first place and while it’s the same show, it’s completely different and it’s weird watching it.
Such is the life of a contractor.