Mike's poll on how much debating we do on other people's time, meaning at work, prompted this question.

How do we define work in today's economy?

For example, when employed as a systems administrator, I spent a large part of my day thinking about computing systems, even in the shower. Well, especially in the shower--got a lot of breakthrough ideas there.

Is that work? Or is work only when I have my grubby hands on the systems? What about time spent reading about systems in trade rags and online?

And another thing--what about carrying cell phones and pagers? Keeping corporate computers at home for dialup? Might it be said that we are heading toward 24x7x365 work with hardly any time for anything else?

Lots of other big questions come up from this little one:

How do we define work in today's economy?

I think of work as thing I don't WANT to do, but need to. if I enjoy it (like janitorial) I don't really consider it work, but a job.

Work is what I'll have to start doing again on 2 September after just about a year to the day since I last did any. Something of a relief, as the pay-off I got form my last employer will run out at just about the same time. (Phew!)

To take a line from Flanders and Swan. (For those of you who have never heard of them, you uncultured swines you (don't take offence at this, it is an english expression), they sang duet. One was in a wheel chair and the other was a soprano but their music was excellent.)

The first law of thermodynamics,
Heat is work, and work is heat.
...
heat is work and work's a curse
so all the heat in the universe,
has gotta cool down, yeah
that's entropy man.

I agree with unabomber, stuff you have to do because life demands it that you don't want to do is work, if you enjoy it it isn't work. Unless it's really hard and you work yourself out or silly. Most of us probably don't work, we sit at a computer all day when we could be building or carpentry or proper manual labour. That's work.
By the sweat of your brow shall you measure work.

I'd say it's work if it's related to what people pay you for. If you think about it in the shower, or on the exercise machine (my own favorite) it's work. Even if you enjoy it, it's work. A salaried full-time employee is generally expected to spend some of their own time thinking about work, and some of their time at work dealing with their own stuff (calling dentists, surfing the web, whatever). Even if you're working part-time or hourly, you might find yourself doing work at home on your own time. It might seem stupid because you're not getting paid for that time, but it might also improve the quality or quantity of your work product, increasing your perceived value and enhancing your professional reputation. That's work too, even if it's voluntary and unpaid (and possibly fun as well).