IBM’s CEO disagrees with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s disdain for texting in meetings: ‘Telling people they can’t use their technology would be weird’

As more employees return to the office , some CEOs are finding they need to reteach basic meeting etiquette —including one surprisingly divisive topic: checking your devices.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been especially blunt about it.

At Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit in fall 2025, he said he expects full attention from everyone in the room.

“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,” he told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell .

“It’s disrespectful.” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna , however, sees it a bit differently.

He argued it would be “weird” for a tech company to tell its employees not to use their technology—especially in larger meetings where devices can be a useful tool rather than a distraction.

“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,” Krishna told CNN in October 2025.

At the same time, the 64-year-old said that smaller, more intimate meetings should be treated attentively.

“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.

“I would tell them: ‘Why don’t you come back when you have time?’” Dimon’s long-standing frustration with meetings Behavior in the conference room is something Dimon has long lamented.