In Physics, 'work' has a very clear definition:
It's (strength of a force) times (distance through which the force acts).
'Work' has the units of Energy.
If you push against a shopping cart with 30 newtons of force, and
you keep pushing while the cart moves 4 meters, then you have
done (30 x 4) = 120 newton-meters of work = 120 "Joules".