James Watt, co-founder of the beer producer BrewDog, has drawn controversy by describing Britain as “one of the least work-oriented countries in the world” and questioning the nation’s deal with “work-life balance”.
As an alternative, the entrepreneur and his fiancée, the social media persona Georgia Toffolo, advocate “work-life integration”.
In a video posted 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.” Though he deleted the unique Instagram put up, citing a torrent of abusive messages, Watt later shared new feedback suggesting the damaging response highlights a “low work ethic” within the UK.
Watt referenced analysis from the Coverage Institute at King’s School London which discovered that Britons are among the many least probably of 24 surveyed nations to say work is central to their life. He additionally cited statistics from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics indicating UK output per hour is 13% decrease than France’s. “As a nation, we love to joke about the French being lazy,” Watt famous, “but the reality is that our output per hour is lower than theirs.”
Pointing to the Institute for Fiscal Research’ conclusion that Britain’s lack of progress within the final 15 years may be attributed to declining productiveness, Watt mentioned he was perplexed on the hostility to “someone sharing their approach to hard work.” He argued that if the UK can’t interact in a civilised dialog about work ethic, it might battle to “compete on the global stage”.
Watt, who stays a non-executive director at BrewDog regardless of stepping down as chief govt final yr, has beforehand confronted scrutiny over BrewDog’s inner tradition. Some former workers accused the corporate of fostering a “culture of fear” in 2021, prompting Watt to concern an apology and description how the enterprise had modified. Final yr, BrewDog determined to not pay new recruits the true dwelling wage, as an alternative choosing the authorized minimal wage—a transfer that triggered additional criticism.
Whereas his newest remarks have been met with a fierce backlash on Instagram, Watt famous that the response was extra constructive on LinkedIn. Georgia Toffolo, who joined Watt within the video, supported his stance on “work-life integration” by describing their shared “high-octane obsession” with their respective tasks and companies.
