Work management apparatus and program therefor

A work management method for managing work performed in a work area, comprising:

• detecting that work was executed in a work area;
• detecting that the work in the work area ended;
• detecting that a hand of an operator entered an article area where an article relating to the work is placed;
• and
• acquiring information relating to the work in the work area if, from when the hand of the operator entered the article area is detected until the work in the work area ended is detected, then the work was executed in the work area is detected.

A work management system for one or more image forming apparatuses, comprising:

• a first detector configured to detect that work was executed in a work area comprising the one or more image forming apparatuses;
• a second detector configured to detect that the work in the work area ended;
• a third detector configured to detect that a hand of an operator entered an article area where an article relating to the work is placed;
• and
• an information acquisition component configured to acquire information relating to the work in the work area if, from when the third detector detects that the hand of the operator entered the article area until when the second detector detects that the work in the work area ended, the first detector detects that the work was executed in the work area.