For the third time in a row, I'm working at a company where I've worked with at least two of my co-workers before. Jenni and Michael at Jam Warehouse working on KnowledgeTree, Bryn and Shayan at CareerJunction, and Lisa and Tracy now at SynthaSite.
I've mentioned before how each job (with one exception) has brought with it a new addition to my "Dream Team" of people I'd love to work with again - with whom I imagine any challenge is surmountable.
But there are other side effects of working with people again - they act as catalysts to memories of the past (at least, to someone whose memory is as shredded as mine).
The team at SynthaSite is taking a few days to get everyone aligned on what it is we're doing and building and how we expect to work together with each other. Which, I imagine, can seem a lot like team-building. It's happening at a small conference centre at the Waterfront in Cape Town.
Before Lisa and I even started working together, we were in the same conference centre doing "actual" "team-building" exercises. You know, the ones that involve holding hands and silly games like squeezing the next person's hand when your hand is squeezed. And silly facilitators losing all credibility when they try to suggest that you may have set a world record.
Which then reminded us of other team-building exercises at that company, which then brought on memories of the air-conditioner fights at our offices, and then, at least for me, a lot of thinking of the great and not-so-great times with some great and not-so-great people.
And, then, Tracy mentioned a few things about how great it was at the company where we worked together - at least through my innocent and politically-shielded first-time-job eyes - and the great and not-so-great times and people there.
The great times and people mostly come to mind the quickest and remain the longest (as fortune cookies and self-help books have asserted) - but I suspect that's only after you've been allowed to process the experience in a background process while seemingly having forgot about it all.
I guess that doesn't help if you're actively disliking your current employ, but at least you're likely to look back fondly if you're working with great people - which I guess means you need to look for great people while interviewing potential employers as much as they need to do so when interviewing potential employees.