Work is the central building block of human progress and prosperity. It defines our survival and evolution. In physics, work is the product of force and displacement and work done is the movement of an object through transfer of energy. Work, in sociology, is defined as the carrying out of tasks, which involve the expenditure of mental and physical effort. Its objective is the production of goods and services that cater to human needs.

From ancient civilisations to Reformation and Industrial Revolution, working hard has continually produced wonders of human craftsmanship. Be it an infrastructural miracle like Egyptian pyramids or an architectural prodigy like Taj Mahal, an engineering genius of Panama Canal or scientific marvel of computer technology, the toil of human endeavour has always unleashed innumerable accounts of growth and advancement.

Sadly, however, hard work has disappeared from the core of our value system. Resultantly our overall progress in all spheres of life is at an alarming low. As such, within the contextual framework of state and society, we need to explore why in our country the dignity of work is not cherished as a way of life?

Whatever the cause, it is generally true that as a nation we have become prone to retrogressive cultural ills like inertia and indolence. We go to comical lengths to avoid work of even the most trivial sort. This disinterested attitude towards life has adversely affected our mental and physical efforts to carry out tasks necessary to create a certain degree of public good. The outcome is dreadful: an unconvincing decline in poverty levels, awful governance indicators, deteriorating economic conditions, sluggish human development indices, a meager literacy rate and so on.

In short, not only in practice but also in theory, Pakistan is far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. On the contrary, however, our neighbouring countries China, India and Bangladesh, let alone Asian Tigers and other ASEAN member countries, have shown remarkable progress in improving their socio-economic conditions over the last twenty years or so. Most of their achievements are invariably the result of empowered institutions established and developed through persistent determination and strong work ethics.

So why are we lagging behind? In our national perspective, the following three decisive factors provide the reason for not working hard – political economy, education, and public office holders.

The overall fatalistic and disinterested attitude towards work has its roots in the political economy of Pakistan, which is not structured to promote hard work. While there are precedents of countries making significant improvements in reforming their social constructs, political structures, economic systems, and state institutions, the situation in Pakistan is dismally different.

Traditional political formations, concentration of power, feudalism and inequalities, among others, have shaped our perilous inclination towards status quo and procrastination. Lack of hope of the achievement of desirable impact of one’s efforts has led us to a state of oblivion and resignation.

As a nation, we are made to believe that the outcome of an individual or collective effort is a sheer waste of time. So, “leave it” has become a predominant work philosophy and “no gains” a nudge for resistance to change. Resultantly, serious and sincere effort is nowhere to be seen in value creation activities, such as people electing representatives, parliamentarians making laws, civil servants delivering public good, teachers imparting knowledge, doctors treating patients and so on.

The trickle-down effect is even more dangerous – lack of ownership and destruction of intangible social institutions and tangible public assets. Even the bare minimum common sense does not seem to prevail; the cycle goes on, and the country is speedily pushed into the abyss of poverty and destitution.

Our education system has no inspiration to work. While education should serve the purpose of development of each learner for living morally, creatively and productively, our values stress such historico-political and socio-religious variables that are largely synonymous with passivity and dysfunction.

With or without any substantial success, in the last two decades, there have been numerous reform efforts in the education sector in Pakistan in areas, such as policy and planning, teacher recruitment and training, curriculum design and educational assessments.

Still, public education in Pakistan is fraught with low attainment levels in comparison to most of the countries in the world. Sadly, apathy of our officialdom coupled with the poor levels of incentives for teachers to teach, little motivation for learners to learn, and deeply subsided willingness of parents to positively contribute – all are to blame equally for this enormous lapse in strengthening communities and furthering the process of nation building by incorporating the value of hard wok.

Our deteriorating state machinery and lousy quality of public services are testimony to sub-optimum levels of efforts and low productivity especially on part of officials holding leadership positions.

The organisational culture of avoidance of responsibility, obsolete performance management system and lack of accountability drive the last nail in the coffin. A majority of workers is engaged in low priority work as the job allocation process, particularly in our public sector milieu, is largely supply based. This condition breeds lack of interest and disengagement with responsibilities.

Eventually, the input levels are overtly insufficient, work-processing mechanisms are outdated, outputs are either delayed or inefficiently delivered. The overall impact is counterproductive. The cascading effect is even more devastating – insecurities, unrest, resentment, and low morale among all those at the lower end of reward pyramid.

What is the remedy for this lack of industriousness? State has to take charge; the society in turn may seamlessly follow a complimentary motion. A culture of work has to be inculcated from the top and permeate into the core of all fundamental routines of our social, political and economic institutions.

Altogether, all members of the society should be taught through persuasion and experience that good physical and intellectual performance is vital for a decent and fulfilling life. The focus should be on preparing a rational individual to assume the responsibility for work – the elixir for human development.

Changing the mindset of the people by highlighting the importance of dignity of work can bring us back to road to recovery and progress. Otherwise, the silent killer of “leave it” phenomenon will keep on widening an already formidable socio-economic gap with contemporary nations.

The writer is a senior institutional reforms and capacity building professional. He can be contacted at alitariqjatala@hotmail.com