James Watt, co-founder of beer maker BrewDog, has sparked controversy by describing Britain as “one of the least work-oriented countries in the world” and questioning the country’s focus on “work-life balance” .
Instead, the entrepreneur and his fiancée, social media personality Georgia Toffolo, are advocating “work-life integration.”
In a video on social media, Watt argued that “the whole concept of work-life balance was invented by people who hate what they do. So if you love what you do, you don’t need work-life balance, you need work-life integration.” Although he deleted the original Instagram post, citing a flood of abusive messages, Watt later shared new comments suggesting the negative response highlights a “low work ethic” in Britain.
Watt referred to research from the Policy Institute at King’s College London, which found that Britons are among the least likely of the 24 countries surveyed to say work is central to their lives. He also cited statistics from the Office for National Statistics showing that British output per hour is 13% lower than that of France. “As a nation we like to joke about the laziness of the French,” Watt noted, “but the reality is that our output per hour is lower than theirs.”
Referring to the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ conclusion that Britain’s lack of growth over the past 15 years can be attributed to falling productivity, Watt said he was dismayed by the hostility towards “someone who is changing their approach to hard work shares’. He argued that if Britain cannot have a civil conversation about work ethics, it could struggle to “compete on the world stage”.
Watt, who remains a non-executive director at BrewDog despite stepping down as CEO last year, has previously faced criticism over BrewDog’s internal culture. Some former employees accused the company of fostering a “culture of fear” in 2021, prompting Watt to apologize and outline how the company had changed. Last year, BrewDog decided not to pay new recruits the real living wage, opting instead for the legal minimum wage – a move that led to further criticism.
Although his latest comments on Instagram were met with strong backlash, Watt noted that the response on LinkedIn was more positive. Georgia Toffolo, who joined Watt in the video, supported his stance on “work-life integration” by describing their shared “high-octane obsession” with their respective projects and companies.