When it is allowed to wink at work

We are witnessing the huge rise of emojis in office communication.

While doing research for this article I found out that:

• you can type emoji (yes, it returns you to cave painting times but who said they had been bad);
• you can eat emoji (I know now what kind of birthday cake I will have);
• you can play with emoji toys (emoji toys for your pets included);
• you can inflate emojis (they are one of the most favorite themes for air balloons);
• you can wear emojis (I will not even start listing all the items of clothes you can put emojis on);
• and if it is not enough, you can watch emojis (I mean yes, the emojis are new movie stars; the moviegot bad reviews but after all, emojis root from naive simpletons emoticons so for sure at the release of Emoji-2 or 3 or 4, we are doomed to love it).

What stands behind this incredible popularity?

The vocabulary of most adult native test-takers ranges from 20,000 to 35,000 words. It seems that emojis translate into these numbers fast and easy, especially considering the fact that the total numbers of emojis in 2018 reached 2823.

Actually, they became the fastest growing language that people universally use regardless of age or social group.

What we know so far:  

• the word itself comes from two Japanese words: ‘e’ for picture and ‘moji’ for a character;
• the original set of the first ever created 176 emojis is kept in New York in the Museum of Modern Art;
• the pictorial icons have risen up to the kings of digital communication since becoming a fixture of the iOS keyboard in 2011. Android followed suit in 2013.
• the World Emoji Day is celebrated on July 17, which is only logical. The Apple “calendar” emoji shows the date of July 17;
• if you think that emojis appear in a random way, you are wrong. The special corporation that approves the new emojis is Unicode Consortium. It announces itself as the non-profit charitable organization responsible for choosing the new emojis across all platforms. It has 4 technical committees and one editorial committee;
• the word ‘emoji’ was added to the Oxford dictionary in 2013;
• two years later, in 2015, the emoji of the smiling face with tears of joy was named as the Word of the Year;
• over 90% of online consumers use emojis;

Photo: emojipedia Twitter

• emojis usage might have legal consequences as the courts regard a gun, a skull, and a bomb emoji in the texts as evidence of a threat

• there were offers of using emojis in PIN-codes or passwords instead of digits;
• by various estimations, over 5 billion emojis are sent every day;
• you can hashtag with emojis on Instagram;
• Finland was the first country that offered the special ‘national’ pack of emojis in 2015. Petra Theman, Director for Public Diplomacy said: ‘...Emojis are used communicate visually rather than verbally, and that suits Finns’
• people in different countries most love different emojis: the Arabic speakers use flowers 🌹, and the Brits love a winking face smiley 😉;
• you can join over one million viewers that already watched the Game of Thrones episode in emoji;
• it comes as no surprise that the skull emoji is most used in October due to Halloween while the Christmas tree is December favorite 🎄 🎄 🎄.

Do not hesitate to wink: Emojis are great for your productivity

In a nutshell, emojis are easily squeezed into the following equation: less time on typing = more fun+more productivity

The emoji support is such a big deal that almost all the apps have the option to add emojis or customize the sticker packs.

Probably, the ubiquity of emojis is justifiable by how helpful they are in personalizing the office communication.

Using emojis adds fun to work thus making work fun – that is to say, emoji language makes the process less stressful and not so energy-consuming.

They create the personal touch: whatever we consider reflecting ourselves will switch on the intrinsic motivation, thus, making us more productive by default.

Besides, emojis facilitate communication as they compensate for the lack of body language.

They have the capacity of presenting the concept in a very simple way: pictures are universal. They can be easily interpreted as the brain takes very little effort to decode the meaning of the picture comparing to the meaning of the words.

Being self-explanatory, they act as problem-solvers when you are in a hurry. People crave for the tool to express the full range of their emotions, which adds to emojis popularity.

Of course, misunderstandings are still possible: everyone has discovered they have been using an emoji the wrong way sooner or later (hope, in your case it was not the eggplant emoji when texting your boss).

The funny graphics may not have replaced text just yet, but their popularity has surged among the millennials so much that it is highly likely that emojis become a domineering language, which the millennials’ employers will have to take into consideration.

Implementing smileys in office communication turned out to be the innovation applicable not only to interpersonal communication but to business as well whether we are talking about profit-seeking companies, or nonprofit organization, or a government entity. It corresponds to the trend of less formality in business.

Emojis foster creativity, self-improvement and open your mind to new ideas by saving the valuable time. Their invention in some way can be compared to introducing the travel by plane, – once you reach your destination 10 times faster than before you will disregard the possible risks and travel by air again.

Just before submitting the article I checked on my email subscriptions, and what was the first thing I found?

Without a doubt, both bagels and emojis are here to stay¯\_(ツ)_/¯.