The ‘patintero’ syndrome

People in their 30s and late 20s remember the game patintero (not quite sure about the kids today who grew up with Nintendo, Sega, and GameBoy). It’s a game where the objective is to get by one level, move on to the next, and eventually progress onwards, towards the home base. It’s a game of cat-quick moves, timing, and a lot of bluffing. The fun part of watching the game is seeing two bodies jerking and shifting from one side to another in a rather crazy sort of dance.

Nowadays, the only time I get to play patintero is when I’m walking along a crowded walkway or sidewalk or in a mall. It happens to me all the time. Does it happen to you? I call it the patintero syndrome: You’re walking hurriedly and there are a number of people walking towards you, going the opposite direction, and then suddenly, without any warning or reason, you find yourself stopping right in front of another person walking the opposite direction who also stops right in front of you because you’re blocking his path.

You stop for a moment and he stops for a moment, and realize you’re blocking each other. You stare at the other person for a split second; bow your head; and then you shift to your right. But the other person shifts the same way. Knowing you have been blocked, you shift to the left as a knee-jerk reaction. But then the person in front of you instantaneously shifts to the right, too, thus blocking you again! The two of you feel embarrassed.

Then you shift right, then to the left, then to the right again – and the stupid person in front of you does the same jig, mirroring your every move, as if the two of you actually choreographed it. Then finally you get a hold of yourself and you decide to stay still in anticipation of the other person’s move – and for some strange cosmic reason, he stays still too. Then you scream silently, "Aaargh!!!" Then finally, after three to four seconds of unplanned synchronized patintero, you go to your left, and he goes to the right, and then you’re home free.

I don’t know about you but that happens to me almost every day. So, to a certain extent, even if I don’t play patintero anymore, I still get to practice it every so often.

‘Patintero’ In The Corporate World

While patintero along the sidewalk is amusing, there’s another patintero that’s not very funny: patintero in the workplace. Now this happens all the time, probably more often than the sidewalk patintero. Although in this situation, you’re the only one on your team, and all your other colleagues are your "enemies" trying to invade your turf, your home base – the home base being your great relationship with your boss and your bright future in the company.

It is so common in the workplace, especially in complex organizations. In every company, there are employees and each employee has a turf, a scope of expertise and responsibility within the organization, a niche, a place within the boss’ heart. And whether we like it or not, each of us, as much as possible, try to block off anyone who would seem to be a possible threat to our little niche, our special place in the boss’ "circle of trust."

When someone comes along and all of a sudden attracts the boss’ attention, and it just so happens that the "new guy" is working within the periphery of your turf, you suddenly get paranoid.

This is when we play our own subtle corporate patintero. You know the feeling, right. You pinpoint and identify the threat, the "attacker" in our lives; and, in your subconscious, you try to block off the guy’s path, to ensure that he doesn’t get past you. You try to make sure he doesn’t get closer to the boss than you are. So you try to monitor the guy’s every move, checking out his every shift, shuffle, and fake. And when the opportunity presents itself, you try to block him whenever he comes up with a great idea that may potentially put him in a favorable light to the boss.

Colleague: And that is my 30-page PowerPoint presentation on how we can minimize our costs, lower our capital expenditures, maximize our profit by 100 percent, and create new jobs for the economy. Any questions?

You: Yeah, I have a question… I don’t like it! It sucks!

Colleague: That’s not a question. That’s an opinion.

You: Fine!! It still sucks to me, OK????

You know, it’s natural to feel threatened when you feel someone is about to take over your turf. It’s a law of nature. It’s survival of the fittest and you try to be the fittest and the best and you want to make sure your enemies are destroyed at the soonest possible time. Eat or be eaten. So what do we tend to do? We backbite. We try to put down the new guy. We gesture thumbs-down his every suggestion. And why not? You have your little place under the sun in the company, and you get your living out of that. You’ve reached your comfort zone. And more than that, that’s where you find your "being," your "essence." And then, all of a sudden, a young maverick comes with a lot of enthusiasm and knowledge, and in a flash, you see the nameplate on your door gradually transforming from your name to his name.

But you know, in all my years talking and sharing notes with people in the corporate world, I’ve discovered one thing: Sometimes the worst thing you can do to your career is to put down people, and the best thing to do to your career is to make others look better.

If you make others look better, especially those under you, you achieve two things. One, you can establish yourself as an effective manager of people since you created the working environment for him to excel in (the achievement of your subordinates is your achievement as well). Two, if you help other people, you create allies within a company who will speak highly of you and become witnesses on your behalf, should things turn sour for you.

In this day and age where mudslinging and backbiting is the rule and not the exception, you need all the allies you can get. When you try to block off people, like in patintero, you create dissention and bring down morale. Plus, you give others reason to hate you and speak ill of you. And really, what you’ll sow is what you’ll reap as well. At the end of the day, the whole company suffers. With all the bickering and backbiting, who has time to work?

Working in this world is never easy. You always have to work with different people with personalities and backgrounds. The diversity can sometimes be overwhelming. But it also means each one has a unique thing to contribute. Besides, working has always been about teamwork. No one person can ever achieve more than a group of people can achieve. As clichéd as it may sound, there is no "I" in the word "team." And it takes a team to get things going.

So whenever you encounter that little patintero shuffle again when you’re walking in a mall, ask yourself, "Have I been harsh to anyone? Have I only been thinking about myself? Is there anyone in the company I can help, and, in the process, help myself?" Of course, the person that you’re blocking will probably think you’re nuts.

But hey, it’s a crazy world anyway.

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Thanks for all your letters, especially all those who sent sympathy e-mails to Teemy and me last week. I will try to answer all of you. You are all in my prayers. And if you wish to reach me, you may write me at rodnepo@yahoo.com.