[RLN]

"Mr. Hoopes put his convictions into practice at group gatherings when he took over a team of about 25 people at the aerospace defense company three years ago. “Every time someone’s phone went off, they had to stand for the rest of the meeting,” he says."

That sounds very unprofessional, it's like a punishment a teacher would give out. I'm not even sure how I'd react to being told to do that but I think it's unlikely I would be staying in the meeting.

[rosser]

But it's not unprofessional to walk into a meeting, where the combined pay of everyone present is being spent for the purpose of discussing whatever's on the agenda, and have your phone going off — let alone answering it — distracting the group from that stated purpose?

Really? Your call is important enough to waste the time of everyone else in the room?

[learc83]

There are professional ways to deal with unprofessional behavior.

Something like talking to the employee after the meeting. Some of us don't like being treated like children when we make a small mistake.

[rosser]

I really wonder at the intersection between the sets "people who find this manager's behavior unprofessional" and "people who idolize Steve Jobs".

My intuition is, it's substantial.

[apple4ever]

If its my wife calling about my son going to the hospital, you are damn right its important enough.

Stop assuming the meeting is more important that people’s lives. In fact, I say the meeting is less important.

If a boss did that, I’d leave and find a new job. I’m not a 5 year. I’m an adult. I will be treated like one.

[rosser]

This is one of the cases where "the exception proves the rule." It's massively specious to point to exigence as an excuse for general unprofessionalism. Of course that circumstance is different from chit-chat. If you're interrupting a meeting I'm in, when I could have had my hands on the keyboard accomplishing things for that, I'd want you to find a new job, too — but you probably wouldn't want to use me as a reference.

[electricEmu]

Would leaving be more, or less, professional than the phone to begin with?

If an employee "just left", then I wouldn't blame management or expect to see that coworker anymore.