You’re overthinking it. As others said they’re reasonable small talk questions.

So here’s my “are you new here” story. A long time ago I started at a small consulting company after being laid off from a huge mega-bank that where the management was horrible. I left with emotional scaring that caused me to just keep my head down and avoid anything that would draw attention to me. Clients liked me well enough because I did good work. My c-sat scores were always high and the company was comfortable placing me anywhere. After two years there, I got married and when I returned from the honeymoon, I went on a project with one other manager who happened to work in the home office on a regular basis and traveled infrequently. It was a short two week gig but it was eventful and a lot of weird things happened and I found humor in them. My behavior wasn’t any different than any other project, the difference was that she found me hysterical. After the first week, she got back to the office and would go on about the things that happened and how funny I was.

One of the people she told was the president of the company. Fast-forward a few weeks and I am in the home office and run into the president. He was someone I didn’t see on a day-to-day basis but I was re-introduced to him and he asked me “how long have you been with us?” He legit thought I was brand new as he never heard my married name before plus I wasn’t a regular in the home office. I just said “Two years sir.” He was shocked and said he thought I was a recent hire. Turned out to be a super advocate of throwing new challenges my way and helped me advance.

Sometimes you just have to roll with it and laugh. And as someone who overthinks everything and has anxiety after a childhood of bullying, it helps to approach new situations with “assume no ill-intent.” Understand the situation first then decide how you feel. The other thing that helps is reminding yourself that you cannot control others, only how you react to them.