Should You Use Emojis In Work Correspondence?
Call me old-fashioned, but I’m a big fan of the English language, fancy vocabulary words, grammar…all that fun stuff. I used to think of emojis as lazy. Find the words to explain your thoughts; don’t rely on a cartoon expression. Now I’m as guilty as the rest, peppering my texts with all kinds of emojis, because sometimes a cat face with a wry smile shares the tone of your message better than any additional words could. And nothing says “how embarrassing” better than Flushed Face emoji. Oh, and have you ever been having an actual verbal conversation with someone and you want to punctuate whatever you’re talking about with Rolling on the Floor Laughing face? That’s scary!
So when is it cool to emojicate and when is it better to use words, words, words? A new study investigated what people thought about emojis when they were used in work emails. Guess what. The email emoji users were thought to be less competent by the group who read the emails. Oh no!
When would it be acceptable to use emojis in a work email? There are a few exceptions:
- If you’re communicating with a millennial
- If you want to keep it simple with a smiley face
- If it’s part of your company’s culture
When it comes to emojis in work emails, the answer may always be: less is more.
~Roxanne Wilder
