CEOs Are Furious About Employees Texting in Meetings - WSJ | Chip Cutter
Jamie Dimon says it’s gone too far. Others are devising new measures, from hiding Wi-Fi passwords to installing the corporate equivalent of the swear jar.
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Bosses have long railed against distractions in meetings but some say it’s gotten worse.
A few weeks ago, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky asked his top lieutenants to identify the problems they saw quietly plaguing the company.
Chesky called it the “fester list.”
One executive threw out an issue: Too many Airbnb employees weren’t present in meetings because they were checking their phones or laptops.
“It’s a huge problem,” Chesky said.
Then the chief had a realization. He was guilty of zoning out, too.
“Sometimes I’m like, ‘OK, I heard it. I know what you’re about to say. I know the subject matter,’” Chesky said. “I text, but then people see me text, they text. This is a major societal problem.”
For years, bosses have railed against distractions in meetings. But many say that despite phone bans and public shaming, the problem doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Some are exploring new tactics, from hiding Wi-Fi passwords to levying fines.
Jamie Dimon used part of his annual letter to complain about phone use.
“This has to stop. It’s disrespectful. It wastes time,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in his annual letter to investors in April.
Dimon renewed his complaints this month. “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 said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit.
Brad Jacobs, the billionaire CEO of building-products distributor QXO, devoted a chapter in his book to “electric meetings,” noting many gatherings are deathly dull and full of passive listeners. “Chairs might as well be filled with human-shaped cardboard cutouts,” he wrote.
By contrast, a distraction-free meeting can be riveting, he argued. “It’s very validating to have a couple dozen of your colleagues actually listening to what you’re saying,” Jacobs said at a Goldman Sachs event last year.
People didn’t freak out, Fixler said. Instead, many seemed relieved not being tethered to a device. “The conversation was better,” he said.
He is considering instituting a lighthearted corporate equivalent of a “swear jar,” where employees pay a small penalty whenever they pull out their phones or laptops. The money could go to charity. “If the phone is visible during a meeting, then money goes into the phone jar,” Fixler said. “We can gamify the rules.”
At UKG, Bob DelPonte has asked colleagues in his team meetings to at least put their phones face down. People at the workforce management and HR-software company have learned to self police, calling each other out by saying things like, “Hey, you know, you seem to be somewhere else,” said DelPonte, the company’s chief customer experience officer. “It’s a nice thing. It doesn’t have to be iron fist.”
Some employees point out that broadly, the rules have changed, with bosses expecting staffers to be connected at all hours to respond quickly to messages. They also note that their superiors may be oblivious to the parallel conversations that are now a key part of meeting culture. Workers may be texting or emailing colleagues to compare notes or answer a question raised by a boss—to say nothing of personal issues that may need attention.
Others appreciate texts during their meetings. Andy Decker, CEO of Goodwin Recruiting, conducts remote meetings for his recruiting firm. If he is going long on a subject, his co-workers will let him know—via their phones. Decker said he occasionally receives a three-letter text from colleagues in a meeting: “LTP,” short for land the plane.
“A text can be helpful, like: ‘Don’t get in the weeds on this one, you’re losing people,’” Decker said. “It makes the meetings better because we allow that.”
In a moment of hiring slowdowns and flattened corporate hierarchies, many employees are doing the jobs of multiple people, and some say workers should also be forgiven for looking at their phones.
“People use their cellphones for all types of meaningful information today,” said Bob Chapman, chairman of the manufacturing and professional services giant Barry-Wehmiller, who co-wrote a book on a kinder approach to leadership. “It never occurred to me to tell people not to use their cellphone in a meeting.”
Some say the onus is also on executives to help make meetings more valuable.
When Ashley Herd, a former chief people officer and general counsel, leads offsites and management training sessions, she will often pause when she sees people looking at their phones. Instead of reprimanding attendees, she takes it as a cue to discuss how attendees balance demands on their time.
At Airbnb, Chesky said the company likely isn’t going to introduce any new processes or rules. Instead, Airbnb’s leadership team has now agreed to try to reset the meeting culture by living as examples. Chesky said he’s aiming to not look at his phone unless it’s an emergency.
Airbnb’s Brian Chesky admitted he’s guilty of zoning out during meetings.
“These things are tools. They’re neither good or bad, inherently—it’s what we do with them,” he said. “Overuse is an issue. I don’t think the phone is a problem. I think the amount of time we stare at a phone is a problem.”
Write to Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com
Appeared in the October 29, 2025, print edition as 'Bosses Lose It Over Texting In Meetings'.