“When Sports Computers Disappear and Offices Run on Personal Laptops”

 

Musarrat Ullah Jan , KikxNow , Digital Creator

In sports administration, some events sound so much like comedy playscripts, but unfortunately, they happen in reality. Here, an example exists in a provincial-level sport directorate, where projects develop, but the most essential thing in carrying out the projects, which is a computer, cannot be found.

It all starts with a company, brand new and eager, accepting multiple orders from the sports department. The orders ranged from small to extensive, but what they all had in common was the need for the proper equipment. One of which was simple: computers. The orders were placed, the forms filled out, but when the equipment was delivered, it vanished.

Just walk into any part of your office today, and nowhere will you find any computer from any department in the office. All they use are their laptops. This goes against all paperwork, and it really shouldn’t be happening, considering it would give any administrator a shock from blinking twice to witnessing such a sight.

Not even the so-called “ honest and upright” office employees, whose honesty and integrity are always cited outside office premises, have been immune to this odd system. They are entirely reliant on their personal computers, managing files, emails, and office information. Here’s the irony—they are doing something that breaks office rules, and that something has become the norm in this office.

Meanwhile, the absent computers have become the stuff of legend. They are maybe training for virtual sports games. They maybe participate in the invisible office league. No one knows, and this is exactly the point of the joke. When the questions are asked, the answer is merely silence. This is not angry silence; it’s the kind of silence that accompanies resigned amusement.

The projects are still on the move despite the lack of equipment. Reports have to be submitted, presentations have to be made, and the whole operation has to be run on personal laptops. This whole office scenario has somewhat turned into a reality example of making the most out of the least or a case of absurdity masquerading as simplicity.

This strange environment sees one crucial point illustrated in all its glory: at times, the bureaucracy is just a stage. Computers are gone, projects are moving along, and all are smiling about this as if it’s just business as usual. This is where even the most honest employees are now players in this game of SOPs in an environment where devices are functioning as tools on both ends.

In such a setting, the missing computers are no longer objects; they are symbols. Symbols of a system in which there are guidelines laid out in paper form, but the guidelines are just that: guidelines, and not the rule, in practice. In which major projects, with costs in the millions, are undertaken with nothing to suggest the related infrastructure being in place. And in which the employees know the "alienating ritual of smiling through the absurd."

If the sports directorate ever plans to establish a training program, it should be named:

“Hide and Seek: The Computer Edition

In these offices, computers hide, projects move ahead, and employees adapt, smile, and sometimes laugh at the unseen infrastructure that keeps the machine humming.

#kikxnow #digitalcreator #musarratullahjan #sports #kpk #pakistan