It turns out using emojis at work is ticking off the majority of British workers, with 62% saying they find them inappropriate.
This is on top of a study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science that says using a smiley face emoji in a work email may make people think you are less competent.
Women were more likely than men to think emojis were inappropriate at work (64% vs 56%) while people aged 35-44 were revealed to be most likely to use them in the office (46%). Those aged 55+ were most likely to think they were inappropriate.
The research, by TollFreeForwarding.com, asked over 1,000 UK workers about different office behaviour they think are absolute no-no at work. Despite the UK beer-fridge office culture, drinking alcohol at work came high on the list of unacceptable behaviours, with almost 9 in 10 (86% of) workers saying this is not appropriate in the workplace.
With millions of UK workers now hybrid or remote working, more Brits see running personal errands during work time as acceptable – over a third of all workers (36%) have no problems taking a cheeky break to work on their personal to-do list.
Other behaviours people took issue with were their colleagues shouting (87% said this was inappropriate), discussing their sex lives (83%). 4 in 5 Brits also felt like swearing wasn’t appropriate in the workplace (80%).
Jason O’Brien, COO of TollFreeForwarding.com, said of the findings:
“It’s interesting to see how your work communication, including the use of emojis and swearing, might actually be getting on your colleague’s nerves. Over a third also thought sarcasm wasn’t good in the workplace, which is often called a staple of British humour. We’d advise you to sense the tone with all your communication and work out what’s best to say.”
You can learn more about the study on the TollFreeForwarding.com blog.
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