‘Has to stop’: JPMorgan CEO calls for an end to ‘disrespectful’ meeting habit

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called out staff over a common “time wasting” activity, saying it has to “stop” immediately.

The head of America’s largest bank has called out a rude habit on the rise in workplaces - and it bothers him so much he wants it banned.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has had enough with staff blatantly checking their phones and emails during meetings, labelling the act “disrespectful” and saying it needs to stop immediately.

The 69-year-old shared his gripe in his annual letter to shareholders, claiming he always gives “100 per cent of my attention” to meetings.

“I see people in meetings all the time who are getting notifications and personal texts or who are reading emails. This has to stop,” he wrote.

“It’s disrespectful. It wastes time.”

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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called out people who check their phones and emails during meetings. Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images via AFP

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Mr Dimon also encouraged staff to “worker smarter, not longer”.

“Don’t read the same email two or three times. Most can be addressed immediately,” he said.

He also took aim at corporate lingo that is often rife in offices, labelling it one of his “pet peeves” and telling people to get rid of the jargon and simply “talk like you speak”.

However, the letter wasn’t all doom and gloom, with the CEO also highlighting the importance of making work enjoyable.

“We spend the vast majority of our waking hours at work – it’s our job to try to make it fun and fulfilling,” he said.

This isn’t the first time Mr Dimon has aired his frustration with staff being distracted by their phones.

During a talk at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business last month, he recalled a situation during a recent meeting where he encountered this exact issue.

It was at a point in the meeting when he was sharing his gripe with people “reading their mail and getting notifications”.

“And as I was talking, there were 12 people in the room and four people on the screen, and all four people on the screen were on their phone,” he said.

His comment was made during the Q&A part of the talk after he was asked about his working from home rant at a town-hall meeting, a recording of which was widely circulated online earlier this year.

In the leaked audio, he dismissed an employee petition challenging the bank’s five-day in-office mandate

“Don’t waste time on it. I don’t care how many people sign that f**king petition,” the CEO told staff.

He also said he had “had it” with empty offices, while also raging about employees not paying attention during meetings when they are working from home.

During his appearance at the university last week, one student asked Mr Dimon how, given his strong opinion on the subject, he thinks young workers should be approaching WFH when starting out their careers.

“I’ve admittedly listened to the leaked audio clip that was circulating on Twitter about your strong opinions about working from home or remote work. Would love to just hear some of your thoughts or guidance or advice on how we should think about these topics,” the student said.

In his response, Mr Dimon pointed out that the majority of Americans “worked the whole time” at their jobs that weren’t able to be completed remotely during Covid.

“Where did you get your Amazon packages from, your beef, your meat, your vodka, where did you get the diapers from?” he asked.

“You got UPS and FedEx and manufacturers and agriculture and hospitals and cities and schools and nurses and sanitation and firemen and military. They all worked.

“It’s only there’s people in the middle who complain a lot about it.”

Hitting out at government workers, Mr Dimon said there were some people in Washington DC who are having their salaries paid by taxpayers that go into the office “five days a month”.

The CEO also pointed out that there is about 10 per cent of JPMorgan employees who still work remotely full time, with the company setting up virtual call centres in Baltimore and Detroit.

He said the set up has proven to be “highly effective”, noting he is not against working from home “where it works”.

Mr Dimon also told students they should have the right to be able to say they don’t want to be in the office five days a week, but they don’t get to decide how he runs his business.

Reiterating previous comments he had made about the negative impact working from home has had on young people, Mr Dimon said these workers are being “left behind”, pointing to this as a big reason widespread WFH “doesn’t work in our business”.

Young people working remotely has a cumulative effect on their careers, he said, pointing out that if they aren’t around for “conversations at the water cooler [and] in the cafeteria”, they will soon notice they are getting less opportunities and have less of an understanding of what is going on within the company.

“So it’s leaving them behind. I won’t do that,” Mr Dimon said, while adding that it also isn’t OK to ask young people to come into the office but not their bosses.