Define "work"

[lillibet]

Elsewhere, someone was discussing the work that he and his partner are doing to improve/sustain their relationship and someone else commented that if a relationship requires work, then it may not be worth continuing. This led into a discussion of what defines "work," more generally. If you enjoy a process, is it work? If you choose to do something, is it work? Are activities you undertake in pursuit of a hobby work? If you get paid to do something, is that work? If the product of your activity mainly benefits someone else, is that work? What activities do not count as work? What is work?

EDIT: For those of you who enjoy conversations between dpolicar and me as a spectator sport, be sure to check out the comments.

Comments

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

I go with the very basic Tom Sawyer whitewashing-the-fence definition: If you have to do it, it's work; if you don't, it isn't. For example, I love doing massage, such that I've gone to some effort to bring my table to the beach, the mountains, the desert, etc, for the sake of giving massage to strangers. But I also perform massage as work, i.e., I show up to give massage for a specific amount of time to a specific person, because that person is paying me to do so. I may well enjoy it very much, but then it's "work."

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

So you can't choose to do work? Or is it simply that having chosen to do it, it ceases to be work?

To use a personal example, would you consider what I do with Theatre@First to be work? (Don't worry, this isn't a trap--I think the answer depends very much on one's own definitions.)

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I guess I don't think of it in terms of choice at all. I certainly choose to do both paid and unpaid massage; and when I choose to do either, it doesn't become more or less "work."

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Hmm, I guess I don't think of it in terms of choice at all. I certainly choose to do both paid and unpaid massage; and when I choose to do either, it doesn't become more or less "work." <sits and thinks for quite a while about what the distinction is...> It's not about payment (as there is certainly plenty of volunteer work in the world). It's not about commitment or responsibility. It's not about enjoyment.

Ah well. It is a very simplistic definition; maybe it doesn't work very well for other people.

I would consider your Theatre@First commitments to be "not-work," though of course I'd glibly use the phrase, "Elizabeth puts a lot of work into Theatre@First." Boy, I shouldn't join the debate team on the merits of my definition, should I?