A well-placed emoji expresses something that’s often hard to truly define – and that’s raw human emotion.
Whether it’s sadness, joy, or complex feelings like nostalgia, emojis have become the 21st-century way to show others how we feel or to empathize with those close to us.
And now with Gen Z, the world’s first truly digital generation, entering the workforce, emojis are not just a trend but a significant shift in corporate communication norms.
But which emojis are they using the most? And which ones are considered too cringe to drop into a client email?
These are the questions behind the latest study by the research team at mailsuite. Leveraging workplace data from Censuswide, they delved into how American workers are incorporating emojis into their work emails.
The study shows that Gen Z is super comfortable firing off emojis in emails, with over 50% including a smiley face in messages to new or existing clients. They’re also 200% more likely to send an emoji to a senior manager.
Some managers are more than happy to talk back in pictures. Over 30% of U.S. workers say they received emails with emojis from a manager within the last 12 months.
(Let’s just hope those boomer managers understand the real meaning behind the eggplant emoji. That’s an HR escalation just waiting to happen!)
And while 6% of respondents say they find work emojis annoying or stupid, the overall feeling toward them is positive. From the thousands of workers surveyed in the study, over 40% say that a smiley face or thumbs-up emoji makes work emails come across as more friendly and personal.
In short, it’s a big 👍for emojis in the workplace.
