Smart phone. But using emojis at work isn't very smart.
It’s not just your haircut or your clothes. Sending emojis, meaning “picture characters” in Japanese, can make you look old. Inside the workplace, emojis can make you appear out of touch, “rude” and even passive-aggressive, according to a new report from Prospectus Global. Since their origins in Japan in the late ‘90s, and their global breakthrough in 2011, there are 838 emojis in popular use today. In a survey of 2,000 16 to 29-year-olds, who send about 80 emojis per week, cancel culture is coming for emojis, and the people who send them. The thumbs up emoji - rated number one for being uncool - is at the top of the list. Here are the top 10 emojis that make you look old, according to Yahoo News:
- Thumbs up 👍
- Red heart ❤️ ️️
- Ok hand 👌
- Check mark ✔️
- Poo 💩
- Loudly Crying Face 😭
- Monkey eye cover 🙈
- Clapping hands 👏
- Kiss mark 💋
- Grimacing Face 😬
While 22% of respondents report that they use multiple emojis in a text message “to make it clearer”, a new poll from Tel Aviv University says that emojis actually make you appear less powerful. “Picture-use signals a greater desire for social proximity,” the research says, using a $12-dollar double word to designate closeness as a bad thing. Would a simple emoji have been easier? “People strategically use pictures when aiming to signal less power,” the survey continues. In some situations, especially in a work or business environment, [sending emojis] may be costly, because it signals low power.”
Picture This: Emoji Sensitivities Emerge for Gen Z
Rude and hostile. That’s how Gen Z is calling out that thumbs up icon on Reddit. A 24-year old poster, HuaAnNi, writes, “It’s super rude if someone just sends you a thumbs up. Took me a bit to adjust and get out of my head that it just means they [Gen X texters, or perhaps Boomers or even Millennials] are mad at me.” AvalancheReturns replies, “Its just a way to say ‘I’ve read your message and have nothing add and I hope and pray to all the god all the bazillion people in this group chat have nothing to say on it too.’"
They’re not wrong. The thumbs up emoji is the new “K”. Whether you view it as dismissive or efficient, emojis aren’t the only game in town, when it comes to online communication. Not surprisingly, Gen Z survey respondents have a simple answer for creating greater impact at work:
Use your words.
Tone in Text: Why Emojis Don’t Always Work at Work
“I only use [the thumbs up emoji] sarcastically,” says Barry Kennedy, 24, in this article. Yet, there’s no way to indicate tone in a text message. Which is why you either love or hate texting. When tone doesn’t exist, it’s easy to assign one - even if sarcasm or rudeness is the wrong one. Ultimately, the medium is the message - so why risk miscommunication at work? When you think you are transmitting efficiency, but your team reads it as sarcasm, your communication is crumbling.
It’s easy to turn this issue into a generational debate, but that’s an oversimplification. The real issue here - and it is ageless - is effective communication. Talk it out with your team, and find out if they believe that a thumbs up emoji is dismissive, rude, sarcastic, or whatever. And use your words to clarify your meaning, so there’s no misunderstanding.
Don’t tapback when you can talk, or share words that clarify what you mean. After all, you can speak to text into your phone. (No word on the surveys if that speaking to text makes you look old or not. But it does.)
Consequences of Emojis: How To Fix Your Communication at Work
Match.com found that the more emojis a single seeker uses in their texts, the more dates they go on — and the more sex they have. (The ultimate social proximity, perhaps). This survey of over 5,600 singles points to an unexpected outcome from the use of emojis - but probably not the correlation you’re looking for at work.
“We’re people and we have words to use,” says Kim Law, a 25-year-old social worker from Nassau County on Long Island. “If I took the time out to write a thoughtful message, then you shouldn’t be responding with the bare minimum. Fix it and write something real back.” Communications specialists are still evaluating her use of that command in the final sentence - the one without the word “please” - but you get the drift. Assume she’s not being bossy, just trying to be direct, and the message is easier to digest.
Professor Vyvyan Evans, author of The Emoji Code, says, “A common prejudice is that an emoji is the equivalent of an adolescent grunt, a step back to the dark ages of illiteracy, making us poorer communicators in the process — maybe even dumber, too.”
Texting and Emojis at Work: A Slippery Slope
We’ve known since the 1960s that the majority of communication is non-verbal. Emojis are like any tool: it’s the way that you use them that matters. Are you stepping into your purpose, and showing up as the leader you want to be, with that OK hand emoji? Or are you grunting at your team in a group text? The survey says: reconsider.
Remember the first rule of great communication: consider your audience. If texting is a trigger, don’t pull it. Turn instead to the number one business tool out there today: the conversation. Make sure you see and set expectations, so that if you’re going to use that thumbs up emoji, you don’t get a thumbs down response.
