By José Dominguez, December 31, 2020 — It was a hot summer afternoon in Chihuahua City. Rafa López, our plant manager, ‘suggested-commanded’ to our managerial staff, where I was included as Training Manager, to play dominos. Seven area managers in total were ready to follow such an unavoidable invitation. We all knew it was better to attend and have a good time instead of provoking friction with our boss. Then he said, “Let us go to the traditional bar ‘My Office.’ There we can drink beers and play and everything is on the house!” In reality, it was an invitation difficult to refuse, and it was especially attractive on that hot evening where beer was a cold and tasty commodity that made us feel fine and at the same time loquacious and mellow.
“What about playing a little domino? Do you know how to play, Charlie?” He asked me. (Well, they called me Charlie because my name is José Carlos. So some called me Charlie, and some called me Charlie Brown.)
“Not a champion but not a beginner,” I answered. Four of us at each table looked to be the perfect distribution. The beers were generously distributed since the beginning. Then, our table was slammed by the domino chips and everybody selected the proper amount of pieces. According to the rules I ended up having a partner, so besides having to do my own game calculation to honorably survive the tournament, I had to think twice since, in a way, my partner was for better or worse attached to my poor gambler destiny.
We could talk about everything: girls, jokes, food, money — except for our chip preferences. Oh, my fellow managers! They started the game as a joyful fight. Oh, those industrial minds! These mega supervisors were in control of the factory’s workforce, which in this case was more than 1,500 humans. Immediately, they were calculating the perfect number combination to obtain the optimum result with the least waist-cost and the maximum of quality. Their production rules were their second nature thanks to the GM’s industrial culture transplant. They had to win; the end product had to be delivered on time in order to honor the effort invested. To win was the obvious reward for the energy involved in this little microcosmos of [the] production-wining struggle. The stakes involved for them were total. To be or not to be. Nobody wanted to expose themselves as weak, improvising, or a mis-calculator in front of Rafa’s severe judgment — it would be unprofessional and unwise. The idea was to hit the adversary hard in order to finish swiftly and irrevocably in the least [number of] trials. If we, as a couple, didn’t have the chance to dispose of the chips then we would be [the] subject of public scorn, facing the humiliation of being losers. Besides that, I had to face my partner’s deception, who was in all his right to call me a traitor, failure, fool, irresponsible, or who knows what else!
Here we were, absorbed, grouping chips by preferences and by the family of numbers. All the faces were tense, projecting intensity and commitment. Each time they played a chip they did it with the security that it will cause a fatal irruption in the adversary play. Provided that the partner could support successfully the initiative. All players, being experienced, knew the impact of each trial and the correctness of the use of each token. They always committed themselves 100%. The competition was furious and strived until it ended with a final product … with cost efficiency, no waste, and just in time.
Now, here I was. I spontaneously made my decision. Well, it was ok to drink free beer and also ok to play; but, above all odds, the most important thing was to have a good time. To win or not to win was something out of my mind. I was not going to suffer for my miscalculations and at the same time would not be over joyful if by chance I put an adversary in a hard predicament. I preferred to be talkative about the easiness of making mistakes, about the easiness to imagine how to win with no effort, [and] about how to have fun with silliness.
Some participants laughed about my easygoing behavior. My partner was not so happy, I guess we were in the same boat just by chance and I knew I was a handicap for him. The real problem with him was that we had a partnership misunderstanding. He assumed that I knew what I was doing. Not strangely, we lost the first game. For me, it was a happy moment, the adversary couple was euphoric praising me as an uncovered ally. We made a toast for the winners and hoped that the losers, my partner and I, would react — at least for dignity. They tried to explain my multiple errors but I preferred to sip and enjoy my spirit drink.
Frankly, I didn’t give a damn to use my neurons in such extreme calculations. I reserved my brain capacity to say jokes and tease my fellow players. The situation was not catastrophic and I had the assurance that my life was not in danger; perhaps only my beaten and diminished reputation as a domino player was damaged according to the public opinion, which, in this case, I didn’t mind at all. The second round started with the same level of energy and I decided to use some elementary calculation which added to a great deal of luck, gave me the capacity to play all our chips. It was idle to say that for few moments we felt like professionals. “It’s the beginner’s luck,” they mocked on me.
Silently, I agreed with them. What else could it be if I was a beginner with nothing to lose? I thought that domino essentially was a social game. Unfortunately, it attracts a large number of antisocial people. The most controlled person was our Plant Manager, Rafa, he was very serious following our movements, but in a burst of desperation issued a strong commentary: “The demon of bad luck always follows the passionate player but I can’t stand this play anymore, there’s no seriousness. If that is the case, the only serious thing is to chat. So, [do] you care for one more drink?” and he added, “Charlie, I didn’t know you were a joker! What do you think about domino?” he asked me. I answered: ”Well, I think it’s a game invented by a sadist played by masochists.” We laughed and our domino play was over.