JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon speaks at the 2025 National Retirement Summit on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently opened up about his phone habits at work, including not reading any text messages and turning off phone notifications.
“We were not notified,” the finance director said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. “If you text me during the day, I probably won’t read it.”
She added, “The only notifications I get are from my kids. That’s it. If they send me an email, I get it.”
The 69-year-old revealed that he doesn’t always carry his phone with him and prioritizes deep concentration while working.
“I don’t wear it when I walk around the building or go to meetings. It’s in my office,” he said. “When I go to a meeting, I read beforehand and I’m 100% focused on what you’re talking about and why you’re talking about it. I’m not distracted and thinking about other things.”
Dimon has previously complained about poor meeting etiquette, telling Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women Summit in October that using the phone in meetings is “rude” and a “waste of time.”
“If I have an iPad in front of me and it looks like I’m reading an email or getting a notification, I tell them to close it,” he said at the time.
He explained that meetings should have a purpose, and checking email or getting distracted are red flags.
work remotely
Dimon remains critical of the latest changes in the workplace brought about by the youngest generation in the workforce. Gen Z adheres to a more traditional way of working and often expects the same from their employees.
Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase’s CEO ranted at JPMorgan employees about working from home and using phones for meetings in a leaked audio recording after employees complained about having to return to the office five days a week.
Mr. Dimon was concerned about the “damage” working from home was having on young recruits and told them to quit.
“Don’t give it to me — working from home on Fridays works fine… I call a lot of people on Fridays and no one is available… I’ve struggled with this kind of thing before,” he said in the recording.
“They’re here, they’re there, Zoom (Gen Z), and the Zoomers aren’t showing up…That’s not the way to run a great company.”
In one phone call, he abused his work-from-home privilege to attack managers, accusing them of being lazy. Dimon said that when using Zoom, managers were just looking at emails or sending texts and weren’t paying attention. “And even if you don’t think it reduces efficiency, reduces creativity, and creates disrespect, it does,” he added.
Work etiquette
Anastasia Dedukina, a digital well-being expert, previously told CNBC Make It that checking your smartphone too often reduces the quality of your conversations with friends and colleagues. A 2023 study by Reviews.org found that Americans check their phones an average of 144 times a day.
She explained that just having a cell phone nearby can be very distracting. Using the telephone may give a bad impression to your superiors and colleagues, and is a violation of work etiquette.
“I keep thinking about that too, because for our mind, smartphones and smartphone sounds are very attractive stimuli. So when the phone rings and a notification comes, for my mind it’s the same as you calling my name,” Dedukina said.
That’s why it’s important to stay focused in meetings, Alison Wood Brooks, an associate professor at Harvard University, previously told CNBC Make It, because it makes you look smarter and more likeable. This includes asking follow-up questions and rephrasing or repeating what the other person said back.
