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Emojis
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Emojis in the office: have they made France 1<0 Belgium: Euro
your emails not suitable for work? 2024 last 16 G as it happened
A new study says many employees think a work Canadian woman gets three
communication without an emoji lacks something. But years’ jail in first ever
with generations split over their meanings, sending them is sentencing for a
‘Pretendian’
not risk<free
Live Democrats warn of
Mon 18 Jul 2022 17.09 CEST ‘dangerous precedent’ set by
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Composite: Alamy
Name: Workplace emojis.
Age: 25. The first set of emojis hit Japanese phones in 1997.
Appearance: Ever more various, including a heatwave-appropriate “melting
face”, and multiracial handshakes in the latest release.
OK, but why did you just email me a yellow waving hand? Just being friendly
with a colleague.
Hmph. I loathe emojis. They are an infantilising impoverishment of
language. Have you ever considered you might be the one with
impoverished language? In a recent survey of 9,400 workers worldwide by
the messaging platform Slack and the language app Duolingo, 58% of
respondents said they would consider an emoji-less work message “lacking”.
Do you never use emojis at work?
Never. Well, I have very occasionally succumbed to the skull. And what do
you use it for?
Death, pestilence, an oblique commentary on Alan from marketing’s poorly
formatted PowerPoints. This is a case in point: younger workers often use
the skull to convey that something is “dead funny”. The survey found that
generational differences in how we use and interpret emojis are creating all
sorts of awkwardness and misunderstanding. For instance, what do you
think a classic smiley means?
Presumably it expresses satisfaction, perhaps at the felicitous wording of a
memo? Not for the 9% of people (and 20% of Americans) who use it for “deep
exasperation and/or distrust”. How about the aubergine?
If pressed, I would use it to inform people that my legendary baba ganoush
is available in the third-floor kitchen. This is where some of the worst
problems arise: older workers sending colleagues emojis that are distinctly
not safe for work. A winky face is considered not just jokey but flirtatious by
younger people, and anything with a tongue, peach, taco or aubergine is
strongly discouraged.
But this is going to play havoc with working lunches. Basically, it’s best to
avoid any emoji that could be misunderstood, or make you seem creepy and
inappropriate to younger colleagues.
I see. Is this a bit like David Cameron using LOL for “lots of love”? Sure, an
excellent, up-to-date analogy.
Hang on, is that sarcasm?
There’s an easy solution to this problem: stick to the language of
Shakespeare in work communication. The same Shakespeare who wrote a
famously filthy innuendo involving fruit (medlar and pear) in Romeo and
Juliet? No, the is out of the with pictograms in work communication.
“People from various countries and cultures … need emoji to help convey
subtle meanings in real-time, often high-stakes situations,” says Hope
Wilson, Duolingo’s learning and curriculum manager.
Can you do a Duolingo course in emojis now? You can. Might be worth
signing up?
Do say: “The feedback on your annual appraisal is .”
Don’t say: “We are delighted to present our annual report: .”
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