Rey Lopez for The Washington Post via Getty Images; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post via Getty ImagesJames Watt, the cofounder of the beer company BrewDog, has criticized the UK's work culture.Watt said the UK was "one of world's least work-oriented countries."Watt stepped down as BrewDog CEO in 2024.James Watt, the cofounder of the beer company BrewDog, said the UK was "one of the world's least work-oriented countries" as he criticized the idea of "work-life balance."Appearing in an Instagram video alongside his fiancée, Georgia Toffolo, Watt initially said he believed "the whole concept of work-life balance was invented by people who hate the work that they do."Watt said he and Toffolo instead believed in "work-life integration."Watt received pushback over the post and later deleted it from Instagram, saying "the comments crossed the line from debate to personal abuse." However, he later reposted it with additional context.In the new post, Watt made it clear that his content was "aimed at founders, entrepreneurs, and people who want to push their careers forward," adding that "most successful leaders I know don't separate work from life."In a LinkedIn post, Watt then suggested the pushback may be linked to what he described as the UK's comparatively low work ethic."As a nation, we love to joke about the French being lazy, but the reality is that our output per hour is 13% lower than theirs," he wrote.