Jamie Dimon shares why he never reads text messages at work
Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., speaks at the 2025 National Retirement Summit on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Take Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently talked about his phone habits at work; This includes not reading text messages at all and turning off phone notifications.
Finance boss said “I don’t have notifications” CNN’s Erin Burnett in an interview. “If you sent me a message during the day, I probably won’t read it.”
She added: “The only notifications I get are from my kids. That’s it. That’s what I get when they text me.”
The 69-year-old man explained that he does not always carry his phone with him and prioritizes deep focus at work.
“I don’t wear it when I walk around the building or go to meetings. It’s in my office,” he said. “When I went to my meetings, I did the pre-readings and instead of getting distracted and thinking about other things, I focused 100% on us, what you were talking about, why you were talking about it.”
Dimon has previously voiced complaints about meeting etiquette, saying at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in October that using phones in meetings is “disrespectful” and “a waste of time.”
“If I have an iPad in front of me and you look like you’re reading your email or getting notifications, I tell you to turn the damn thing off,” he said at the time.
He explained that meetings should have a purpose, and that checking emails and getting distracted are red flags.
work from home
Dimon went on to criticize some of the newest shifts in the workplace for the youngest generation to work: Generation Z stuck to more traditional ways of working and often expected their employees to do the same, Dimon said.
Earlier this year, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase went on a rant in a speech. audio recording leakedAfter workers complained about having to return to the office five days a week, JPMorgan advised employees about working from home and using phones in meetings.
Dimon said he was concerned about the “harm” working from home was doing to young employees and told them to quit.
“Don’t tell me working from home this Friday works… I call a lot of people on Fridays and there’s not a single damn person you can reach… I have trouble with this kind of thing,” he said in the recording.
“They’re here, they’re there, they’re on Zoom [Gen Z]and the zoomers don’t show up… That’s not how you run a great company.”
He even lashed out at managers during the meeting who said they were abusing the work-from-home privilege to get lax. While on Zoom, Dimon said, executives were checking their mail, sending messages and not paying attention to them. “And unless you think it slows down productivity and creativity and creates incivility, it does,” he added.
Work etiquette
Digital well-being expert Anastasia Dedyukhina previously said: CNBC shows that frequently checking your smartphone reduces the quality of conversations you have with friends and colleagues. A survey conducted in 2023 reviews.org It turns out that Americans check their phones an average of 144 times a day.
He explained that even having a phone nearby can be extremely distracting. Using a phone can also leave a bad impression on managers and colleagues and is poor work etiquette.
“And I would keep thinking about that because a smartphone and the sound of a smartphone is such an attractive stimulus to our minds. So when I hear my phone ring and I make a notification, to my mind it’s like you’re calling me by name.” Dedyukhina in question.
That’s why Harvard University associate professor Alison Wood Brooks previously shared with CNBC Make It that it’s important to focus on meetings because it makes you look smarter and more likeable. This involves asking follow-up questions and paraphrasing and repeating what the other person said.
