Two of corporate America's most powerful CEOs have landed on opposite sides of an unlikely debate: whether phones belong in meetings at all.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon has drawn a hard line. People need to be fully engaged in meetings, he says, and that means devices stay closed. Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women summit in October, Dimon made clear that focus and presence aren't optional in his boardroom.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna sees things differently. A blanket device ban at a technology company like IBM would be "weird," he argues, since laptops and tablets are fundamental work tools.
No Compromises From Dimon
"If you have an iPad in front of me and it looks like you're reading your email or getting notifications, I tell you to close the damn thing," Dimon told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell. His expectation is simple: everyone gives their complete attention.
He doubled down on this stance in his April shareholder letter. When meetings happen, "make it count. I ALWAYS do the pre-read. I give it 100% of my attention," Dimon wrote. He continued: "I see people in meetings all the time who are getting notifications and personal texts or who are reading emails. This has to stop. It's disrespectful. It wastes time."
Krishna Says Context Is Everything
Krishna takes a more nuanced view. In a recent CNN interview, he explained that meeting etiquette should depend on the setting and purpose.
"I distinguish between one-to-10-person meetings and very large meetings. If it's a very large meeting, I'm sorry. It's not really a meeting. It's a communication vehicle. You're just informing people," he said.
But in smaller settings? That's where attention becomes critical. "If it's a small meeting, I would really frown upon if somebody is sitting opposite my desk and lost in their phone, I would tell them, 'Why don't you come back when you have time?'"
The Distraction Problem Gets Worse
This CEO clash reflects a broader workplace challenge as digital interruptions fundamentally reshape how people collaborate.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) highlighted the scale of the problem in its latest "Work Trend Index." The data shows employees get interrupted by meetings, emails or chats roughly every two minutes. That makes sustained focus in a hyperconnected workplace nearly impossible.
Meanwhile, new technologies are adding fresh complications. Etiquette expert Daniel Post Senning of the Emily Post Institute told Business Insider in May that artificial intelligence assistants showing up in meetings are testing attention spans in new ways. He noted that being transparent about when AI tools are active helps maintain trust and engagement among colleagues.
So who's right? Maybe both. Dimon's frustration with half-present meeting participants is valid—there's nothing worse than talking to someone scrolling through notifications. But Krishna's point about context holds up too. Not every gathering requires the same level of laser focus, and for tech companies, devices are simply part of the job. The real question isn't whether phones belong in meetings. It's whether we've figured out how to use them without checking out of the conversation entirely.
