What is the difference between "five days' work" and "five days' worth of work"?

Question

What is the difference between these two constructions:

a) I've done five days' worth of work.
b) I've done five days' work.

Example (a): I've done five days' worth of work in only two days!
Example (b): Great! Thanks to you, my five days' work goes down the drain!
Do they mean the following:
a) I have done as much work as I normally do within five days' time.
b) The amount of work that I have done within five days.

James K · Answer

I would understand the two expressions just as you said.   Live examples:

How to Complete a Week’s Worth of Work in One Day source

A week's worth of work clearly means "the amount of work that would normally take a week"

Some have advocated for four days of work, followed by 10 days of lockdown.  source

This clearly refers to an actual length of time.
However these division aren't rigid:

Shortening the work week could mean axing important tasks as five days of work are crammed into four. source

So you must always read in context

What is the difference between "five days' work" and "five days' worth of work"?

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