make heavy/hard work of something
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. → workExamples from the Corpusmake 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.