Transcript of the above video:

The definition of work seems to be on the sort of lips of many expats or putative expats here in Thailand. Many people, "well what is work?" If I do this or that, is that considered work? I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on a prior video on our channel, quoting directly: "Well I guess my question is how in the world would we ever know if what we are doing is going to get us into trouble, especially if anything can be considered "work"?" Edit: "Seriously though, if I live in Thailand, my neighbour is ill and I go grocery shopping for her or pick up some medicine for her is that considered "work?" Well long story short, it could be, it is contextual. 

As we have discussed, with many things here in Thailand and this is one where Western especially Common Law thinking on the Thai system, is not going to get you very far because you have got to understand, Thai Law enforcement Officials for example in this case Labour, Employment Officials or Immigration Police, they are empowered with a certain amount of discretion regarding fact-finding in matters pertaining to Immigration and Labour Law. 

So yeah look, again the rule of reason as noted in the title, people kind of know when they are doing something that is work and when they are doing something that is not work, that has been my experience. Sort of common sense if you will applies. Yeah if you go and help somebody who is sick and you go buy them a bowl of soup and bring it back to them, no I don't think any Police in Thailand are going to arrest you for a work violation. What we are talking about when we are talking about work violations are people who are trying to game the system, circumvent it, whatever. The rule is written broadly to keep people from doing that, it is not written broadly so they can run around arresting people for buying groceries. Come on, we know what the difference is. Again rule of reason. You know if you are working in Thailand and if you are not.