SQL Server Architecture
Worktables
The relational engine may need to build a worktable to perform a logical operation specified in an SQL statement. Worktables are typically generated for certain GROUP BY, ORDER BY, or UNION queries. For example, if an ORDER BY clause references columns not covered by any indexes, the relational engine may need to generate a worktable to sort the result set into the order requested.
Worktables are built in tempdb and are dropped automatically at the end of the statement.