From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmake heavy/hard work of somethingmake heavy/hard work of somethingto do something with difficulty They made hard work of what should have been an easy game. → work
Examples from the Corpus
make heavy/hard work of something• You can make hard work of an easy job if you don't know the right way to go.• She was making hard work of plucking the goose. 