Just thinking aloud… if you offer people several work options, saying they have to do one of them for a month, and get the same salary regardless of their choice… and most people avoid an option X… and it’s not specifically because X is seen as low-status or physically dangerous… then X likely is “hard work”.
Also, maybe it is necessary to distinguish between “works that are hard when done properly” (but maybe a lazy person could make their job easy by cutting corners) and “a person working hard” (but maybe because they chose to do more than would be normally expected of them). To use one of your examples, going to gym is hard work compared with sitting at home watching movies, but someone who only goes to gym to ogle girls is not doing hard work.
I suspect “hard work” will be relative to who is doing it, but if you don’t mention who is doing it, then an average adult able-bodied person is assumed.
Just thinking aloud… if you offer people several work options, saying they have to do one of them for a month, and get the same salary regardless of their choice… and most people avoid an option X… and it’s not specifically because X is seen as low-status or physically dangerous… then X likely is “hard work”.
Also, maybe it is necessary to distinguish between “works that are hard when done properly” (but maybe a lazy person could make their job easy by cutting corners) and “a person working hard” (but maybe because they chose to do more than would be normally expected of them). To use one of your examples, going to gym is hard work compared with sitting at home watching movies, but someone who only goes to gym to ogle girls is not doing hard work.
I suspect “hard work” will be relative to who is doing it, but if you don’t mention who is doing it, then an average adult able-bodied person is assumed.