ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Work unit

A work unit is like a piece of a puzzle. Imagine that you have a big puzzle to solve and you need help from many people to put it all together. Each person gets a small piece of the puzzle to work on. This small piece is called a work unit.

A work unit is a task that needs to be completed. Just like how you have to finish your homework before you can go to bed, grown-ups at work have tasks they need to finish before they can go home. These tasks are divided into smaller parts, called work units.

For example, imagine that your mom works at a factory where they make toys. Her job is to paint the eyes on the dolls before they are sent to the toy store. But there are a lot of dolls to paint, so her boss gives her 10 dolls to paint every day. Each doll is a work unit. If she paints all 10 dolls, she has completed her work unit for the day.

So, a work unit is just a small part of a bigger task. And when a person finishes their work unit, they are one step closer to completing the entire task.