Work. What is it?

Do you know what work is? I want you to show me.

Seriously my idea of work is what you do, sometimes reluctantly, to earn money to eat and do all the other necessary things in life.  If you do something for no pay then it can't be work, can it?

If you don't have a paid job and spend your time sitting in the garden then clearly you are not working.  But if you get up and pull up a weed, is that working or does it need to be more than one weed to qualify as working.

A woman does housework for no pay but it still counts as working,but a man washing up is not.
The college professor in his study thinking about his next paper is working but the old man in his armchair musing on the meaning of life and perhaps death, is not.
The artist in his studio is working but the weekend painter is not.
The author in his office writing the outline of his/her next novel is working, the retired dustman writing his memoirs at the kitchen table is not.

All essentially the same activities but regarded differently.  Strange innit?

And then there are professional footballers: are they working when they are playing?

I wonder if I could get funding for a doctorate thesis on this?