This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 82.
Should you use emojis in the American workplace?
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Hey, Michelle, what's going on? Hey, Lindsay, I'm excited to be here today.
I would like to send you an emoji, but no one would see us because we're on the recording.
You could always text me one if you want.
Yeah, sure. Yeah, I know. We don't even use Slack.
A lot of companies use Slack now, right, to communicate internally, but we still use email.
So you really have no way to send me an emoji.
Yeah. i know um lindsey well i mean do i mean you can do an emoji on an email yeah first of all yeah you can do well you can you can do it yes i need to learn how to do that i'm not sure if i actually know um yeah so i mean what so what is an emoji lindsey yeah that's what i wanted to see yeah so what is an emoji i guess it's one of those little like uh kind of heads right with a smile or frown or tears or crying or laughing or doing something right is that what we're talking about today yeah it's like the faces but i guess it is an emoji technically like any of the pictures i think so like if you i mean yeah there's an emoji for like all sorts of things even if it's not a face so those are still considered emojis okay well Are they?
I guess so. No, I mean, if you open your phone.
Here, I'm going to text you an emoji. I never really know how to use that, to be honest.
I'm texting. I'm going to text you. Hold on one second.
I'm ready. Okay, guys. This is going to be... I'm waiting for your text, Michelle.
I'm not getting it. Okay, wait. I got it.
Here, I'm sending you. This is... Oh, wait.
Hold on. This is really important. This is really important.
Yeah, I mean... Oh, there we go. Oh, you gave me the bad emoji.
Is that bad or good? I don't know. That one's weird.
I don't know. I just have to be funny. Okay.
Do you ever use GIFs? And is that also considered?
That's not an emoji. That's just a GIF, right?
That's different? Yeah. Yes, that's sometimes if you just want to like those are usually something that those are fun.
Those are funny. Like my some people use them a lot.
Like I've noticed my neighbor like on group texts like between the neighbors.
He always uses them. It's like you can tell when people are like really, really into that.
Yeah, they're so fun. I think people use them on Slack in the corporate world too, depending on your workplace.
But if you have a cool workplace, you know, modern and cool.
Um, I've always said I want to make a gif out of a video of my dog because my dog is so weird.
We meet lots of dogs that he knows. And as soon as he encounters a dog, he knows he sits there, he sniffs the dog's like mouth for a minute and then he spins.
He goes in these crazy fast spins and the dog sits there and is like, what do I do with this dog?
That's so funny. I feel like it'd be a hilarious gif.
If something good happens, you could send the person the gif of the dog spinning like crazy.
That's so funny. Oh, my gosh. So, so, Lindsay, I mean, do you use so well, I guess not really.
Like, do you do you think it's appropriate to use emojis?
Yeah. And work emails or text? Well, yeah, I do.
Because you know what? Our whole philosophy on business English is that we're dealing with human beings at the office, right?
We're the same person, hopefully, when we're at work as when we're at home.
Obviously, maybe you wouldn't send one to a client or a colleague way above you that you don't know well.
But if you're close to someone, I think it's good and okay to be sending positive emojis.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it depends on the company culture, all sorts of different things.
But I think it I think it can be kind of a connection skill and something to show a little bit of personality.
And also because, you know, sometimes things are so misconstrued over text.
So sometimes that emoji can can help with that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And guys, we have an episode.
Guys, if you haven't heard our other podcast, All Ears English, you are missing out.
Lindsay and I and Aubrey and Jessica, we're over there four days a week.
Yes. And so we had an episode way back, episode 353, and that was three things to keep in mind when using emojis.
So listen to that one over there on All Ears English.
And this is a business, you know, talking about business stuff and emojis and listen to that one as well.
I love that guys. Yeah. If you have not subscribed to that podcast, go over and hit follow on All Ears English.
So you'll have tons of material to work with us.
Everything we do here at All Ears English is focused on connection, not perfection.
So Michelle, are we, so we're on YouTube today, by the way, aren't we?
Uh, no. Oh, we're not on YouTube. We're not on YouTube.
We're actually not on YouTube. I'm sorry.
I wrote YouTube because it's a YouTube video.
Guys, there's a Wall Street Journal. I'm sorry.
That's why. I can see why that was confusing.
So, guys, this is a video. This is actually from six years ago, so things may have changed.
But in general, I still agree. So this is from the Wall Street Journal.
So you can look up using emojis at work, the do's and don'ts.
Yes. We're going to talk a little bit about this video, give some, you know, give some ideas from what they said and give our own opinions.
Yes. So here are some of the main points, you know, they talked about the cultural, the culture of the office.
So one thing they mentioned was like, maybe see what the boss does.
Oh, for sure. But, you know, I think that goes for a lot of things.
It's like, you know, at the office, I think in general, it's always like, okay, does the boss do it?
Do other colleagues do it? Especially if you're new at a job.
Yeah. yeah yeah um but they also say that a boss should be careful about using them to convey tone right like it also might seem a little bit like um it i i forget what i meant by this but maybe maybe it seems a little bit too informal is what i what i tried to write maybe flirt or something.
Oh, that's what could be. Yeah. Could be.
So, so that's one thing. So, you know, see what, see how other people, what other people in the office do.
Yeah. I think so from both perspectives, you know, look to your boss, look to the leadership, maybe not one person, maybe it's a department, whatever, C-suite or something.
They set the tone for the company. So wait and see if they do that.
But if you are in leadership in a company, um, Yeah, I would say be careful because it could kind of portray a weird feeling in the employee's view of you.
Right. Mm hmm. Yeah. Right. They're looking to the boss.
So you have to think about like, what is your personality as boss?
Like, how do you, what do you want to be like?
Right. Like I think of it more as like something that colleagues might send between each other.
Right. But, and there are other ways if you want to get close to your staff, get to know your staff or humanize yourself to your staff, you can do other things.
I was just listening to a podcast where a company, someone was having a bad day and they're a hundred percent remote company.
Right. And one of their colleagues just ordered Starbucks to be delivered to their house. right like fun little things like that that we can do that's nice outside of just sending emojis that could be misconstrued if you know right right right right true there are other other ways to express your personality to say you know so to have that relationship um so another thing they said is like if you're really not sure just don't do it and i think that goes for a lot of things as well like if you're really not sure if it's okay probably just avoid it and wait and see Yeah, I think you're right.
I mean, it's it. But I do agree with what you said before, though.
You know, maybe if you do have a culture of sending these emojis between colleagues, at least it does convey things that are hard to say in words.
Yeah. Yeah. Right, right, right. Especially over text.
I think that it can be, I don't know, even if you put like an angry face about an assignment you don't like or, you know, just as a joke, you know, but again, but you always have to be careful when you put anything into a text or an email about who might see it.
Right. Yes, because it's in writing. It's out there forever.
Right. yeah that's that's the that's the thing about writing so like you don't want to like i want to like complain about your boss and put like you know yeah devil ears on something like you wouldn't want to do that you never know what could happen and uh so you got to be careful And there's a whole cultural layer here, Michelle, that I'm thinking about, you know, for our listeners, for you guys, if you are from another country and then you're working in the U.S., you may have an idea that the business world is more casual or more formal than it is in your office, right?
So you really need to be extra careful and just take a look and see what's going on there.
Right. Right. Exactly. That's a good point.
Yeah. So I mean, but they can be the video also mentioned that they can be good to convey things like so what you're talking about things being hard to read the tone in the email.
So yeah, exactly. I have seen like a lot of thumbs up emojis like. you know, do, I feel like a lot of, sometimes, sometimes I'll say something and somebody will do the thumbs up.
Yeah. And, um, that's cool. Like I, that's kind of efficient.
Yeah. It's efficient. It's cool. Um, so that can be, that can be good.
I mean, but do emojis ever make you feel weird, Lindsay?
I like the thumbs up emoji. I agree. What it is, is it's concise.
I love that. So if someone says, oh, let's meet here at this time, just a thumbs up says, yeah, I'll meet you there.
That's nice. That's easy. But emojis, yeah, once you get into, I feel like it's just like anything, it could be overused.
So in the English language, any word we overuse starts to lose meaning.
I think I would say be very like careful about using them selectively.
You know, they can be weird sometimes. Yes, they could.
Yeah. I mean, sometimes I use them like I'll especially use them if I see someone else using it.
And I think that that's the key. So yeah, You know, evaluate how others email in your workplace.
And if you're a manager, maybe don't do too many.
But I do think they can be humorous and fun.
But I think never, you know, avoid the angry emoji unless you're joking, but not if you're joking.
You always have to imagine that anything you put in writing can be seen by somebody that you don't want to see it.
Right. And even if you're joking, people might not get that you're joking.
Right. right that's true that's true oh text is writing is a little bit scary i have to be honest for sure abercrombie's viral denim sale is back and spotify listeners get an extra 15 off with code spotify af abercrombie is known for their denim with 30 to 50 off all jeans find out how denim should feel shop the viral denim sale in the abercrombie app online or in stores valid in stores and online through august 11th 2025 in u.s and canada excludes clearance price reflects discount code valid in u.s and canada through august 11th 2025 exclusions apply see details online okay michelle let's go into some examples to make this real for our listeners what do you think OK, exactly.
So we are going to talk about some potential emails to like align an email and we'll talk about, you know, would we use an emoji and maybe what kind of an emoji would we use?
OK, let's do it. So the first one is an email to a colleague.
Right. And so what do we say in this? So if somebody is writing like, can we meet to talk about the conclusion of the presentation?
I mean, Lindsay, if you were if you wanted to add an emoji, like what?
Like, OK, so this is an email. So you're saying like I'm writing that email to someone to my colleagues and saying, yeah, can we meet to talk about the conclusion?
I honestly don't think it would be necessary here.
Right. Right. Yeah. I don't see what value.
I mean, it's pretty basic. Yeah. I mean, you could add a little smiley face if you want to, but it's exactly it's like not it would add a flavor, but it doesn't it's not necessary.
It's not something that could be misconstrued, really.
Yeah. I mean, you know, we're going to talk more on this podcast and in all of our business courses this year about writing and business writing.
The most powerful business writing is concise and doesn't have anything extra.
And what you're doing here, if you add an emoji, what would you put a smiley face?
How does that enhance the message or clarify?
It doesn't. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So I don't think it's necessary there.
Now, what about if the boss is emailing an employee?
Could you read this one? Okay. So this, yeah, an email to an employee.
So should we get some delicious lunch for the meeting?
Michelle, would you put an emoji in here?
Again, you don't have to, but this is kind of a casual thing.
I mean, as the boss, as the boss, of course, we've talked about kind of the different layers if you want to.
But this is about a casual thing. I'd stick a smiley in there.
Sure. Or I might like you can also do emojis or like a little picture of like a pizza.
Right. I don't know that that I feel like doesn't do any harm.
And yes, it adds extra information that's not necessary, but it's more like it could feel like a bit of a fun team building thing. right kind of true right right so i think that kind of just is a it's a fun a fun thing to add even as the boss um what about okay this is in an email to a boss who has used emojis before okay here we go um i have an appointment is it okay if i head out 15 minutes early okay so well first of all what emoji would you even would you use uh Well, I know.
That's what I'm trying. I mean, I don't think it's necessary.
But if you wanted to use them, I mean, I'm just like going into the emojis.
Like, right. Don't they have like those like hands where you're not sure if they're praying or if they're like, you know what those aren't like, that could be it or like, okay, like, or like, or what if it's like, I'm just looking now there's like a tooth.
Like what if it's a dentist appointment, you could do like a tooth just to be Yeah.
Again, I think this depends on your company culture.
I don't think it adds any value. I don't think that employees should assume that by adding an emoji, it's going to change the boss's opinion.
If you're leaving work, it's fine. But if your performance isn't great, that's not going to change anything, having an emoji in there, right?
And that's a good point. I mean, that's a good key.
I mean, we don't want to use emojis as like a... is it okay am I okay yeah right exactly so uh and one yeah go ahead I was just gonna say I think thinking about the reason you're adding the emoji and being honest with yourself is the key here you know right yeah yes exactly exactly um and what's a one we'll do one more so Lindsay this is in an email to a colleague what do you think Okay, so you're saying, for example, well, that didn't go well.
Technology is so tough sometimes. I think this would be a good time to put an emoji because this adds value, right?
Yeah, to relate, to kind of show how you're feeling.
So there are funny like... angry faces or or even like a shrug or you know so that could kind of that could kind of show like are you angry are you upset you know um totally are you kind of like you know there's the one where like somebody's like shrugging their shoulders sometimes you might do that so that could add a little bit more about how you're feeling about the situation Exactly.
This is empathizing. So I think it definitely adds value and it's low risk because you're sending it to a colleague, not necessarily your boss or someone else or a client.
Right. So what's your takeaway? I love these little scenarios here.
This is cool. Yeah. Good. Good. Well, the takeaway is, you know, be careful with them, but also observe others to see what's appropriate.
Right. So I think they can bring about connection.
They can also bring about some clarity. Totally.
So I think there's something to consider.
But, you know, you really want to think about it.
See, get the taste of like what other people are doing before you start using them.
But overall, I think they're fun. Yeah. Yeah.
And also add the culture piece, guys. Think about in your country culture, is it more or less common to use them?
So what are the assumptions you're taking into your workplace in the US or the UK?
And then in the company culture or your industry culture that you come from, is there a certain assumption?
So challenge your assumptions, be aware of the assumptions that you have, right?
Love that. Yes. Yes. Very good. Oh man, this was fun.
This is Awesome. Oh my God. This is such a good modern topic.
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Love it. You got it. All right, Lindsay, thanks for hanging out.
Guys, thank you for listening. Good stuff, Michelle.
Talk soon. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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