Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other matter second, telling other people to do so.

Russell makes this remark in his 1932 essay “In Praise of Idleness,” written during the interwar period amid mass unemployment and debates about industrial efficiency, leisure, and the moral prestige of “hard work.” In the essay he argues that modern productivity makes it possible—and socially desirable—to reduce working hours, but that entrenched moral attitudes and economic arrangements keep people overworked while others are jobless. The quip appears as part of his satirical attempt to demystify “work” by defining it in bluntly physical terms and then contrasting manual labor with managerial or directive labor, exposing how social status often attaches to the latter.

The definition is deliberately reductive: by treating work as either moving matter or ordering others to move it, Russell punctures romantic and moralized notions of labor. The joke targets class hierarchy—those who “tell other people” to do physical work are often rewarded with higher pay and prestige, even when their contribution is indirect or bureaucratic. More broadly, the line supports Russell’s argument that societies could distribute necessary labor more fairly and free more time for leisure, education, and civic life. It also hints at the alienation of modern economies, where many jobs feel detached from tangible production and are valued largely because they supervise, coordinate, or control.

“Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so.”