Question about 仕事 vs. 仕事場

Question

While studying Japanese through Rosetta Stone, I've run across these two sentences:

私は仕事に行きます。

私は仕事場にいます。

I'm confused as to why the first sentence doesn't use "仕事場" since the person is going to the workplace.

Answer 1

仕事に行く is standard for "go to work", just as in English we don't tend to use 'go to the/my workplace', although you might use 'office' as an alternative if you work in one. I think the purpose is implied - you are going to move from your current location to another location, and work there.

仕事場 would be used if you wanted to clarify that you meant the location. If you were talking about visiting someone else's workplace, or going back outside working hours to pick something up, for example, you might use 仕事場 (or other terms such as 事務所{じむしょ} or 職場{しょくば}) instead of 仕事.

So when talking about physical location, 仕事場にいます is logical. If you wanted to just indicate that you are working, including if you were working from home, then something like 仕事中です can be used instead.

Answer 2

The difference is the same as the difference in English between "work" and "place of work".

私は仕事に行きます。= I go to work.

私は仕事場にいます = I am in "my place of work" / "my/the office".

It is that easy - although

私は仕事に行きます。= is more likely than: 私は仕事場にいます行きます。

私は仕事場にいます。