Emojis have migrated from personal texting to professional platforms, and they’re not going back. A 2025 survey by Grammarly found that 76% of knowledge workers use emojis in workplace messaging tools at least once a day. Slack alone reports that over 26 million custom emojis have been created across its workspaces. Microsoft Teams has integrated emoji reactions into its core meeting experience. During a team building Zoom session, using the thumbs up reaction (👍) when a colleague shares a success story is appropriate. However, during a formal client presentation, avoiding emojis entirely maintains professionalism.
Know The Audience
Without cues, people often project their own assumptions or mood onto a message. In this way, they serve as modern non-verbal cues, small symbols that help digital communication feel complete. In some settings, emojis can make you seem friendlier and more approachable. Adobe’s 2019 Emoji Trend Report found that 93% of people surveyed use emojis to lighten conversations, and 91% use them to show support to others. 81% of respondents thought emoji users were warmer than people who don’t use them.
According to SurveyMonkey’s data, around half of the younger adults who participated in their survey think that, and only a quarter of respondents aged 45+ think emojis are unprofessional or annoying. Adobe has conducted a more comprehensive report based on a survey of 1000 US emoji users aged 16 to 73, which is a good sample compared to several other studies that have used smaller samples. The survey shows that 93% of these users feel that a business-time emoji lightens up the mood.
Social Media
Even as recently as 2019, 72% of Adobe’s survey respondents reported feeling hesitant to use emojis in the workplace. According to the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organization devoted to ensuring the standardization of emoticons across different devices (among other things), as many as 92% of people use emojis. Emojis in text can help set the tone and can be used in place of a wordy sentence.
- Emojis are modern communication tools, neither good nor bad on their own.
- And it’s no wonder — written virtual communication is in desperate need of emotional subtext.
- This matters because one of the biggest problems in digital communication is tone misinterpretation.
- But while employees have embraced emojis, many organisations have not clearly defined their place in professional communication.
- When you’re emailing a potential employer, sending a networking message, or reaching out to someone for the first time in a professional capacity, stick to traditional, formal language.
The Impact Of Work Emojis On Team Engagement
On the other hand, if the negative feedback is unspecific, the smiley-face emojis might as well not be there at all. In this case, the way the feedback is received depends solely on the textual content. According to research, smiling face emojis can help with the acceptance of negative feedback. Results show that by Bestdates dating site specifying the exact things that the employee could improve upon, the provider is perceived as friendly and helpful. Regardless if your company policy allows their use or not, personal choices should always be respected. So if one of your colleagues dislikes emojis for whatever reason, the right thing to do would be to respect their wish and stick to plain old words.
Keep your emoji knowledge up to date by staying aware of the latest additions and changes in meaning. Recognising when to avoid using emojis at work is just as important as knowing when to use them. Floating hearts and laughing faces during a serious budget discussion can undermine the presenter. Good meeting facilitators set expectations about reaction usage at the start of calls. A practical guide to using emojis at work without crossing lines or confusing colleagues.