'It’s disrespectful': IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon disagree on phones in meetings, one calls it context, the other calls it disrespect

Should employees be allowed to check their phones or laptops during meetings? IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have very different answers.

Krishna believes the answer depends largely on the size and purpose of the meeting. Dimon, meanwhile, has taken a much harder line, arguing that employees should give meetings their full attention.

Speaking to CNN in October 2025, Krishna explained that he makes a distinction between small meetings and large gatherings. In his view, a meeting involving a handful of people requires active participation and attention. But a massive corporate gathering can serve a very different purpose.


“I distinguish between one-to-10-person meetings and very large meetings,” Krishna said. “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.”

That distinction is central to Krishna’s approach to workplace technology. He argued that banning devices outright during large meetings could actually be counterproductive at a technology company such as IBM, particularly when employees may simply be listening to information while handling other work.

For smaller meetings, however, Krishna expects a different level of engagement.

“If it’s a small meeting, I would really frown upon if somebody is sitting opposite my desk and lost in their phone,” he said, adding that he might tell the person to come back when they had time to focus.

Dimon has been considerably less forgiving.

The JPMorgan CEO has repeatedly criticized employees who check emails, messages or notifications while in meetings. At Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit in 2025, he made his expectations bluntly clear.

“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 said. “It’s disrespectful.”

Dimon made a similar argument in his 2025 annual letter to shareholders, saying unnecessary meetings should be eliminated and employees should remain engaged in the meetings they do attend.

“I see people in meetings all the time who are getting notifications and personal texts or who are reading emails,” Dimon wrote. “This has to stop. It’s disrespectful. It wastes time.”

The two CEOs therefore arrive at very different philosophies about the same workplace habit.

For Krishna, the purpose of the meeting matters. A small discussion requires attention and participation, while a large corporate presentation may primarily be a one-way communication exercise.

For Dimon, visible distraction undermines the meeting itself. If employees are reading emails or checking notifications instead of paying attention, he sees it as both disrespectful and a waste of everyone's time.

Their disagreement highlights a broader workplace question in an increasingly connected office: Is checking a device during a meeting necessarily a sign of disengagement, or can technology actually help employees stay productive?

Krishna appears willing to make that distinction. Dimon appears far less interested in making exceptions.