Next time you’re tempted to scroll through your inbox or Slack during a work meeting, Jamie Dimon has a simple message: don’t even think about it.
The longtime JPMorgan Chase CEO argues that meeting etiquette is a skill that’s gone missing from the modern workplace.
“When I go to a meeting, I’ve done the pre-reads, and you get 100% of my attention,” he said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit on Tuesday.
And while in an era where productivity and efficiency are more top of mind than ever, Dimon insists that giving undivided attention is still the ultimate sign of respect.
“None of this nodding off, none of this reading my mail,” Dimon added to Fortune’s Alyson Shontell. “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. It’s disrespectful.”
For Dimon, focus isn’t negotiable—so much so that he says the day he can’t give his full attention to his role, will be the day he knows it’s time to “move on.”
If meetings aren’t to standard, then don’t have them at all
It’s not the first time Dimon has used his platform as one of the most widely respected business leaders to vent about how notifications and constant multitasking have diluted workplace discipline.
In his 2024 letter to shareholders, the 69-year-old doubled down on his distaste for pointless gatherings: “Here’s another example of what slows us down: meetings. Kill meetings,” he wrote. “But when they do happen, they have to start on time and end on time – and someone’s got to lead them.”
The Fortune 500 CEO even recommended rules worth following to make meetings more worthwhile: Every gathering should have a clear goal, defined outcomes, and an action list to match. Plus, only the people who truly need to be there should be in the room, he added.
If the topic of discussion is a new product or service, he recommends writing a mock press release: “This exercise forces you to answer lots of questions people are likely to ask. When you write down what you’re going to say, it focuses the mind and helps you explain things better.”
And above all, he said, leave room for healthy disagreement—even if it makes people uncomfortable.
“Our biggest mistakes happen when people think something is kind of a problem, but they are afraid to raise it in the right room where it might be provocative,” Dimon wrote. “There’s nothing wrong with disagreement. Ever.”
Dimon’s not alone: CEOs are bringing back etiquette school
It’s not just Dimon who is feeling frustrated—his views echo a growing sentiment across corporate America: As technology continues to blur workplace boundaries, many professionals are finding themselves needing to relearn the basics of workplace decorum.
One survey found that hundreds of companies have responded by reintroducing etiquette training to remind employees how to dress for the workplace, interact with clients, and respect shared spaces.
There’s no question that the younger generation has brought their own approach to office life—prioritizing mental health, flexible scheduling, and work-life balance—and are even getting fired for not knowing how to act workplace-appropriate. But in reality, they aren’t the only ones unprofessionally texting in meetings. After all, few entry-level staffers are likely to be in a position of checking their phone across the table from the JPMorgan CEO.
Plus, the research echoes that 60% of employers require training for all employees, including baby boomer workers who had accumulated decades of in-office experience before the pandemic.
“Rather than a generational issue, I believe it’s a societal one,” Annie Rosencrans, the director of people and culture at HiBob—an HR platform that was valued at $2.7 billion in 2023—told Fortune. “The modern workplace has conditioned us to equate responsiveness with productivity, even when that comes at the expense of presence. Technology has blurred the boundaries between focus and multitasking, and we haven’t yet adapted culturally to manage that well.”
Ultimately, Dimon’s message is less about micromanaging meetings and more about mindset: in a world flooded with alerts, attention is becoming one of the most valuable currencies in business.
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