When you were in school, if your teachers were any good, you probably got a lesson on the nature of energy. They will have told you that energy is the ability to do work. Then, to make sure you understood it, they will have spelled out the technical definition of work. It is the product of force over displacement. The physics unit of measurement for this is called the joule, but it should never be confused with newton meters, which should be reserved for torque (which is the cross product of force and displacement).
Work is something that only one object can do on another; it can’t be done by an isolated system. It changes the amount of mechanical and internal energy that a body or system possesses. This is how we get things like speed from throwing a ball. The hand that throws the ball has done work on it, which gives it kinetic energy.
The simplest case of work is when an object is moved along a straight path. For constant forces aligned with the direction of motion, work is equal to the product of the force strength and the distance traveled. If the directional forces are equal, then the work is zero. If the directional forces are different, then the work can be positive or negative.
In the general case of non-linear systems with multiple degrees of freedom, work can be complicated to calculate. However, the principle of conservation of linear and angular momentum applies to the situation. If the forces are conservative, then the work done on an object can be calculated as minus its change in momentum Ek, which is proportional to its linear and angular velocity.
Some examples of work include:
Work has a lot of emotional resonance and can be used in ways that suggest an effort or exertion that may be hard on the body, the mind, or a machine. The words labor, travail, toil, and drudgery all conjure up images of strenuous activity that can be fatiguing and draining. Work is also used to describe any purposeful activity, whether remunerative or not. It can be the activity of a career, a hobby, or a pursuit that we pursue for its own sake.
For organizations, redefining work can empower people to find more meaning and passion in what they do, leading to higher employee retention and productivity, which are both good for business. But a more important effect can be felt in the way that it transforms employees into owners of their own lives, who feel more invested in their jobs and less prone to absenteeism. This, in turn, creates more stability and fewer headaches for employers. In fact, a study found that working from home reduces absenteeism by 41%.
