Emojis in the Workplace
😊🙈🤦♂️🤬🚀💫
This post is a lighter one. I’m a millennial, so I’m of the generation that started using emojis way back when MSN messenger was a thing. As I got older, my usage of emojis seemed to trend down, but now in 2022 it's at an all time high.
I started off my career in consulting at a big engineering company. The work was too serious to use emojis. We were buttoned up professionals doing professional things. Startups have people from a diverse set of backgrounds and more creative people as well. I like that about startups. Emojis seem to have naturally found a place in how we communicate in this new professional environment.
Here are some common emojis and use cases I’ve seen in my startup work environment. Choose wisely because these little yellow characters can say more than you think.
Disclaimer: use emojis at your own risk. This is not financial emoji advice.
🙂 - When you don’t have time to go find a more interesting emoji, but you still want to show that you are being sensitive to how your message comes across, especially when needing something from someone.
🙌 - The most versatile emoji of them all. It can be used in many different situations to show that you’re into something and agree with it. It shows you are a team player and supportive.
👍 - The most professional emoji. You want to join the fun with an emoji but aren’t too fussed to find a cuter one.
😆 - When you’re being lighthearted or making a joke. You would have used "lol" but you don’t want to seem like a preteen. OMG that would be too much.
🤘 - Serves a similar purpose to the thumbs up, showing your support, but you want to be more unique. And it makes you feel cool.
🚀 - The one emoji to rule them all. You don’t just use this one willy-nilly. This emoji represents the essence of what a startup is. Fast growth at scale. This is only used for announcing big wins and exciting updates. Things that really move the needle.
😅 - When you’re asking a tough question, touching on a sensitive subject, or admitting you made a mistake. This emoji is great at lightening the mood. The sweat shows that you acknowledge the situation, where the regular smiley face would seem condescending or out of touch with reality.
🤔 - When you’re giving critical feedback, and you want to show that you’re just being devil's advocate or trying to bring alternate ideas to the table.
✅ - Usually used when someone asked you to do something, and you did it. It can also mean agreement if someone gives you feedback and you take it into account.
👀 - When you are in a rush. You read the message quickly, you don’t have a good response, but you’re telling the person that you saw the message. Also used to say that you are looking into something or going deeper into it. It can also signal to others that you think the the content of the message is important for them to look into as well.
So there you have it. A super important post about some of the more common emojis and their use cases working at a startup. These are mostly seen on Slack, since 90% of our online communication happens there at a startup.
Some other things to think about:
What are the consequences of peppering our writing with these cute, fun characters?
Do emojis make us worse writers?
Do emojis make us more relatable? Especially to gen z’ers as they are coming up in the workplace.
How do you come across if you don’t use emojis?
Now I never thought this would even be a thing I'd pay attention to. But here I am, writing an entire post about emojis. Oh well. Happy emoji-ing.