You Might Be Surprised At The Three Most-Used Emojis At Work
Ah, the emoji. First invented in 1999 by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita, these emotive images have shaped modern-day communication. Apple started adding these images to their systems in 2011, and since then, they’ve become one of the most popular ways to communicate over text, email, and social media. They’ve become such a part of our culture that there’s even a whole movie made paying homage to the tiny pictures (see: The Emoji Movie.)
Their popularity is in no way related to that movie’s horrible reviews — their success has been quite the opposite. In 2016, it was estimated that 92% of online individuals used emojis, in 2015 “????” was Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year, and in 2019, the “global emoji count” has risen to over 3,000. That’s a lot of tiny pictures, man.
In addition to becoming very relevant in society today, they’ve essentially pioneered a near-universal language. Someone who speaks Spanish, French, Japanese or English can all use one of the smiling pictures and convey a message of happiness or joy. They can use a plane, palm tree and a sun to indicate traveling for vacation, giving people across the world the unique ability to communicate without language.
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Emoji also allow us to inject an additional layer of emotion and tone into our words — instead of just saying you’re upset or sad, sending a crying or angry-face can help amplify your message and tell someone that you’re really sad. Case in point: in a recent study, people even admitted that emojis helped them express their emotions in a way they couldn’t over text message.
If you really want to understand how popular emoji are, just look at all of the custom emoji apps that are available in the app store. Kim Kardashian has her own set, called Kimoji, and Justin Bieber also has his own set called Justmoji. Regardless of how little creativity went into the naming of those apps, the fact that they exist points to the insane power of these tiny pictures in our everyday lives. If celebrities have dedicated time and money to making their own custom versions, you know it’s a big deal.
But is there a specific time and place for emoji? Should we be using them in the workplace? Obviously a stoic work environment is not the place for a Kimoji, but what about the more basic, traditional emoji? Can we use the smiling one? A crying one? We dove into anonymous data collected by Hive to see how people were or weren’t using these characters in the workplace.
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After collecting and sifting through all of our data, we found out that people use three emojis the most: ????, ????, and ????. This isn’t entirely shocking, considering the crying face was the word of the year in 2015, as we mentioned above. Our data indicated that people used the thumbs up in messages that they agreed with, but didn’t warrant a response. But when we polled our users, some of them actually admitted that just using the thumbs up could come off as an incomplete answer or passive aggressive, depending on the previous messages sent. For the final emoji, which is technically dubbed the “hugging smiley face,” most people just thought it meant “excitement,” not hugging. It was used to connote emotions a step above the simply smiley face.
These insights are sourced from anonymous data collected through Hive workspaces, and it makes sense — people are using emojis that connote positive emotions and approval, which is what people are looking for when they send work-related messages. That being said, here are a few notes to consider before using emoji in your workplace:
- Make sure you’re using a universal emoji – There are certain emojis that can mean one thing to one person, and something totally different to another. TLDR: Make sure you’re not using an emoji, or string of emojis, that can mean something inappropriate.
- Know your audience – Sending a crying laughing emoji to your company’s CEO might not be the best move if he’s serious and buttoned up. On the other hand, sending one to your work spouse (your BFF at the office) might be a better move. Before you send, think about who you’re sending it to.
- Read the tone of other office messages – If other people are sending emojis in group messages over Slack or Hive, it’s definitely safe to send emoji as well. But if you’ve never seen an emoji grace your computer at the office, it’s best to leave them for text messages.
At the end of the day, using emojis, or any language at work, is all about reading the room and gauging your audience. If you’ve got a more casual atmosphere, a few emojis will probably help to get your point across. If you work in corporate banking and are emailing company CFOs for the first time, it’s probably best to stick to text. Also, avoid inappropriate emojis at all cost (this should be a no-brainer, but I feel it needs to be reiterated).
If your office uses emojis over email and chat, let us know more about which emojis are used and how often in the comments below!
