The commonly-used emoji you should think twice about using at work
The pandemic has changed the way we work – but are you communicating with your colleagues all wrong?
In sad news for workers across Australia, an emoji that appears in most work interactions online is being reconsidered for the way it might be interpreted.
The classic and efficient thumbs up emoji is under attack, with Associate Professor Timothy Bednall at Swinburne University of Technology saying it can be "quite rude or passive aggressive," like some other emojis.
"I think it depends on the context, if someone has taken the time to explain something to you in a very considered and heartfelt way, and your response to that is just a thumbs up, it's kind of the emoji equivalent of saying ‘that’s nice,’ the organisational psychologist told Yahoo News Australia. "For example when someone’s telling you about their holiday or wedding, it's kind of a low effort, flippant response."
"But if its in the flow of conversation — very back and forth — I don’t think it's necessarily a bad thing."
If that's made you overthink your online conversational style a little more than usual, wait till you hear these shockers.
"One that can lead to some cultural miscommunication is the 'OK' hand gesture, where you put your thumb and index finger together," Mr Bednall said. "I guess in Australian culture it means ‘she’ll be right mate’, or ‘I got this’. But in some other cultures — including Latin American cultures — it actually means something quite rude: butthole. So that’s definitely one you might want to avoid using."
"The other one that leads to a little bit of ambiguity, is the prayer emoji, because some people think its got religious connotations, others interpret it as pleading for something, and some people look at that and think its actually two people giving a high five."
Why communicate with emoticons in the first place?
With Covid changing the way we work, and many of us still working from home, using emoticons can be helpful in conveying tone.
"When you’re writing text based communication on say Microsoft teams or Slack, you are really robbed off a lot of that emotional context that you would get in a face-to-face discussion where much of the communication is non verbal; your eye contact, tone of your voice, your body language," Mr Bednall said.
"All of those contextual cues are missing when you write text messages, so I think emoticons are actually a very good way to provide that.
"The bottom line is people want to feel like they’re being listened to and you’re taking in the information you’re giving them — anything that can communicate they are being heard is what people are looking for."
Have a conversation with your team about what works best
If you're worried about how people may interpret your emojis, are having trouble interpreting one sent to you, or would rather just be speaking on the phone, have no fear.
"It's just being willing to express what communication preferences and working with others to work out the way that works for everyone, and being a bit flexible in what they do," Mr Bednall said.
"There are intergenerational differences between the way we use emojis and of course the widespread use of emojis has only really been around for a couple of decades now.
"It is also a form of communication that is constantly evolving and will probably be quite different in a decades' time in terms of how widespread and acceptable it is."
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